Book III: Call's Destiny
by tdfireproof
Summary: this is just an idea for another story, please give me your opinions, what you think, and if you want me to continue writing it
1. Prologue part 1

**Disclaimer: I'm not Meyer Stephenie… wait huh? Well yeah I'm not Stephenie Meyer.**

**Disclaimer Deuce: this is a new project, give me your feedback what you think of it.**

Embry's POV

It was the most amazing feeling. It was like nothing I'd ever experienced before. Granted it had it's negative points but it was different, it was so surreal. I looked up at the darkened sky, I didn't move I simply stayed put enjoying the moment. It might be sick to other people, painful to most but to me it was a unique experience. Most people didn't get the chance to remember it, but I will. I'll take in every sense every feeling every smell of this event, remember it. Most people wouldn't enjoy this, but right now I was. I was taking in the musty smell of stale beer around me, the flickering light of the street lamp past my head, the scenery. How often did I really get a chance to take in everything? All the time I'd rushed through life not stopping to notice the way the cardboard boxes folded under the weight of each box. The way the trash smelt, yes that was beyond disgusting but I took it in as I heard the driving by of cars. I heard people walking by. And then a gasp.

"Holy shit!" I assumed they must have been referring to me, as I lie on the ground in the dark abandoned alley.

"Dude, are you alive?" They were breaking my train of thought, my experience, I didn't need their help. I couldn't see the person who was talking.

"Alex, call 911!" I heard the sound of a phone flipping. _No, that can't happen, the hospital asks questions, and I don't want Carlisle to see me either way_.

"Don't call, I'll be fine." I said finally responding to them with a grumble. He walked closer to me examining me, I put my arm causally over my stomach to hide what he was looking for.

"I'm just laying here, taking it all in, leave me alone." He seemed confused standing over me, as if he didn't know if he should laugh, help me up or walk away. I personally would have preferred he just walked away. He hadn't moved and now his friend had joined him.

"Are you alright?" _I am carrying on a normal conversation with you of course I'm alright, this won't stop me but I might as well get up, he ruined it for me anyway._ I didn't stand up quickly but I didn't take my time either. I wanted to convince these guys I was fine and neither would do the trick. I got up with my arm around my front so the guy wouldn't see my stomach. I had forgotten there was a guy behind me.

"Holy shit you've been shot, you're bleeding." I rolled my eyes, I'd stopped bleeding before they came.

"No I'm not leave me alone." I said harshly. I wanted to make my point clear, that was _'get the fuck out of my way before I hurt you' _

"I'm calling the hospital." The first said flipping out his phone. _Shit you need to stop him._ I delicately grabbed the phone out of his hand, making sure not to break it as I palmed it.

"What the hell dude, I'm trying to save your life!" the one who I took the phone from yelled." I laughed coldly.

"Do I really look like I need your help?" I asked glaring at him. He finally looked afraid of me. His friend flipped his phone out.

"You don't want to make a call, I'll give your friend his phone back once he promises he won't call, and believe me… I'll know if you call." I didn't know how the person behind me knew I was bleeding. The trench coat I was wearing should have covered my back. He shouldn't have seen anything from behind me.

"I swear I won't call anyone." I tossed his phone in his direction before pushing past his friend and around the corner. I made my way down another alley then to another.

Once I was sure they weren't following me anymore, I headed home. I'd been shot tonight, three times in fact, but that wasn't going to stop me from doing what I wanted to, on the contrary, it'd propel me forward to do this again.

**I'm going to leave this project and come back once I'm done with my main story, tell me if you like it and want me to continue with it… Questions, comments, concerns, review it) tell me if you like it, rolls of twenty dollar bills, high fives… here **


	2. Prologue part 2

"Since when is mediocrity alright?"

Since when is mediocrity alright?

Shouldn't we reach for what is out of sight

Maybe we should fall back down to the ground

Where our failures can flourish all around

Follow our instincts lead us to the light

Mediocrity please cause right, is bright

Struggle as you may, struggle with your might

For every step, we add another pound

Since when is mediocrity alright?

It's decision time now, choose fight or flight

Press on as you say, let's fight a good fight

Get back up to win it as the bell sounds

This match isn't done, just the second round

Since when is mediocrity alright?


	3. To La Push, and beyond!

**Disclaimer: Remember remember the fifth of November the gunfire treason and plot… (I know no reason the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot) Guy Fawkes I am not, nor am I Stephenie Meyer.**

**Disclaimer Deuce: I pushed to finish today because today is a certain short reviewer's birthday. (DONT SAE I NEVA DONE ANYTHING FUR YOO!)**

**Embry's POV**

I couldn't stay in bed any longer. I rolled out opened my window almost immediately, before I'd even opened my eyes. I threw my body out the window and rolled up to my feet as I landed. I started at a light jog, then in to a full jog. I didn't want to followed, I just wanted to be alone. I was irrationally angry, sad. I made my way in to the Quarry Park. I made my way over to the high cliff and climbed the cliffs barefoot. Once I finally managed to make it up to the top I looked down at the lake below. I saw the reflection off the moon beautifully illuminating the lake. Even beauty itself made me miss her. This place she would have liked, but the fact that she'd like it more if she was with _him_ made a pain rip through my body. I looked up instead into the clear night sky. My mind was like a running horror film, and not a crappy horror film, I knew more scary than any one monster, is the door it hides behind. The imagination was the real enemy, and unfortunately I had a very imaginative mind. Before I could just tell myself it was just a nightmare, think of something happy and go back to sleep, but not now. Now this nightmare was the truth. Sleeping was much more difficult nowadays. I snapped at everyone. I made sure even tonight Edward knew that I didn't want to be followed. He'd make sure Jasper knew too. This beautiful scene irked me. The water was too calm, it didn't reflect the turmoil I felt. Deep down I knew it was petty to expect anything to reflect the pain I felt, but that didn't stop me from feeling that way. I took a couple steps back in indecision, then ran towards the edge. I threw my weight backwards as I jumped forward flipping backwards through the air. I lost count at how many times I flipped through the air but I landed on the water hard, flat back. I let myself sink in to the water then made my way to the path. The weight of my clothes didn't bother me, especially since I'd air dry them on the run back. I made pretty good time on my run back because I was wide awake. Edward was waiting at the door holding my cell phone.

"Seth called for you?" I gave Edward an odd look.

"At four in the morning?" I said taking the phone from Edward.

"In Seth's defense he thought we were two hours ahead and not two hours behind, besides he called me to make sure you were awake first." I nodded and redialed his number through my contacts.

"Embry? Sorry for calling so early."

"Don't worry, I was awake." I responded in a monotone voice.

"Yeah, why were you up, is something wrong?" _There is plenty of things wrong, I should tell you all about your sister, how much pain I'm in how this all makes me feel. The betrayal that pulses through my body at the mere thought of it. This deep indignation burned me to the core. I felt she wronged me._ I stopped myself mentally slowing _down._

"Nope, nothing is wrong." I lied smoothly.

"Well I was wondering if you could come back to La Push over the weekend… I know it's a big trip and everything but I need to go work on some projects for my online classes at the University of Washington in Seattle." I nodded, then realized he couldn't see me nodding.

"Does Paul really need managing that much?"

"No but the new wolves do."

"Yeah sure… I'll head down to Minneapolis to catch a flight now… Tell my ma I'm coming home, if she can pick me up. I'll call you and tell you when I'm getting there when I get my ticket at the air port." I hung up then looked at Carlisle who was standing at the door with a small smile on the corner of his lips.

"I assume that's alright, isn't it?" He nodded.

"Of course, I'm sure they all miss you, we'll just say you got sick at school." I nodded and gave Carlisle a thankful smile. _Anything to get away from this… _I thought to myself. Jasper stepped out of the house with a suitcase.

"Really? You packed my suit case?" I said eyeing Jasper suspiciously.

"No, I didn't… Alice did." I nodded finally understanding.

"I'll be back for school on Monday." I said climbing in to the car with Esme.

I watched La Push come in to view and I realized how much I'd missed this place. I'd spent the greater part of my life here. My family was here, and I'd walked away. _It was for the better, besides you couldn't stay a wolf AND stay here forever._ I reasoned to myself. The car stopped at our house. It looked the same but different. My mom had fixed it up slightly with the money from the Cullens. She repaired the front porch but nothing in excess. My phone started ringing and I stared down at the number. It must have been Seth.

"Hey." I said plainly.

"Hey Embry, can you meet us out in the forest past Colin's place, where we met for pack meetings?"

"Yeah, you want me to head over there now?"

"Please, I'll introduce you to the new wolves." I threw on a baggy black hooded sweatshirt that Alice had packed, it matched my SCSU sweatpants I was wearing, both basically making me look like a tall figure, but hid my muscles very well. I was still drowsy and of all days the sun decided to forsake us with its presence. I pulled my hood up to shade my tired eyes. I jogged at a human rate over to the opening. I was exhausted. I was slightly hunched over and sized up the three who were with Seth.

"The other wolves?"

"They know you already Emb, they didn't need to be reintroduced." I pulled back my hood not to be impolite.

"I still don't know why we need a new babysitter. We can take care of any vampire problems." The bigger of the two scoffed.

"Heh, whose the wet behind the ears pup?" I laughed.

"That's Drew, his twin brother is Zack."

"Pups? We're more wolves then you are old man." I laughed deeply.

"Old man? I'm twenty one" I laughed at him.

"Yeah whatever." I turned back to Seth.

"Who's the JB?" I asked Seth. He snickered.

"Her name is Dena. She's 17, same with Zack and Drew." I nodded.

"Seth why'd you call this guy up, it's not like he's something special." Drew asked. I smirked at Seth then turned to face the three new wolves.

"I've gotten roughly eight hours of sleep in the last five days, I've been sitting on a plane or in a car for the last 6 hours so I'm not stretched out, and there are two of you guys, yeah this should be a good light workout." I said cracking my neck either way. I jumped up to a branch and held on letting the weight of my lower body pull down and loosen my back. I landed then twisted my body back and forth stretching it out. Then I rolled my shoulders back.

"Was that show for us? Were we supposed to be impressed?"

"Nah, I'm ready, come at me any time… you want to do this phased or not?"

"What do you mean?"

"Don't you want to prove that I'm not needed? Well if you two can beat up this 'old' wolf then I'll just go back to Minnesota, but since you can't let's get this over with, talk is cheap." Drew stepped forward but Zack stopped him.

"He wants us to attack him out of form. He won't have anything on us as wolves." He said. I shrugged and pulled off my hooded sweatshirt. I heard Dena mutter something under her breath. I smiled. I watched the smug look on their faces disappear as they saw I was much bigger than they originally thought.

"You can back down right now and I'll act like this never happened." I said honestly. They both laughed thinking I was trying to back out. I shrugged and started to walk away.

"Where are you going?" Zack asked.

"Sorry, I stopped putting on shows when I left this pack." I sneered as I disappeared in to the woods. I heard Dena laughing. I meant it when I called her JB, she looked way too hot, and way too over 18. She was trouble I could already tell that.

I returned phased and watched the look of horror in their eyes, Zach and Drew were roughly nine feet tall in wolf form, I was nearly eleven feet tall.

"wow…" Dena said quietly. I hid my smirk at her response and turned my attention to the two. I joined the La Push pack again and heard their voices.

"_Holy shit this guy is huge, he sure as hell didn't look that big before!"_ one of them thought.

"_You can still give up."_ I thought at them. The bigger of the two, Drew charged in first. I opened my mouth and caught his, our teeth grabbed each other's grappling for control. I shifted my weight and he threw his at me trying to push me on my back. I sat back on my back to legs then whipped him in to the air behind me spinning him until finally I let go and he went crashing through trees. I locked teeth with Zack. I heard Drew coming from behind me and I threw my head up with Zack still holding on. I stood on my back legs then threw my head back till I fell on my back slamming Zack against the ground. Drew charged quickly and I threw the back end of Zack at him knocking him away. I slammed Zack against the ground on his side, then on the back of his head until he moaned.

"_I give up I give up just stop!" _ I turned my attention to his brother who was charging, I locked teeth with him again, stopping him even with all of his momentum. I quickly pushed back until I was standing over him one paw against his throat one in the air for a strike.

"_Give up!"_ I roared at him mentally.

"_Never!"_ He roared back trying to push me off him. I pawed him across the face. I lifted my paw up again preparing for another fight.

"_Give up! You are no match for me!" _I roared at him. He snarled back at me. I struck him in the face again with my paw then let him go as he made his way to his feet I charged burying my head in to his side sending him flying through trees snappingthem like twigs_. _He made his way back but with less of a strut. He lowered his nose to the ground signifying giving up. I ran out of the clearing and phased. returned wearing my baggy clothes essentially taking form out of my body.

"I'll take the graveyard shift, and yes I'll run it solo tonight. If you need me before then I'll be at my house, if you don't know where it is, ask another member of the pack. I'm out." I said before turning and running home. I jumped through the open window on ground level I left open when I went to the meeting and started looking through my packed bag. Alice had packed my homework. I pulled out a thick text book for Geometry. _I hate math so much._ I thought to myself. I pulled out a small book named "The Pearl" and groaned. The book was assigned to read in school, which naturally meant it would be boring.

Hours had passed since I sat down here. I'd put off doing Geometry as long as I could but reading "The Pearl" I finally decided was worse than doing math and I started my Geometry homework. _Fin_d _the area of a circle…_ _Why? Why the hell will I ever need to find the area of a circle? How many people have circular rooms they need to carpet? This is bull. _I thought to myself. I thought I smelt something. I took a big sniff and realized what it was.

"You can come in Dena." She came in through the window behind me, but I didn't look up.

"How did you know it was me?" she asked.

"Most wolves don't wear perfume, most that are here anyway, unless it was Paul… but I had a good guess it wasn't him." She giggled behind me. _Oh damn it, jail bait was right, she is just too much._ I dismissed the thought.

"What can I help you with?" I asked.

"Well I figured since the other two got to feel you out I should get to know more about you too." I was glad she didn't say that she needed to feel me out, this would go straight in the JB direction in no time if she did.

"What are you working on?"

"Geometry." I answered blandly

"Isn't that a little low level for a 21 year old?" she goaded.

"Shhh, I'm only 15 at Central high school, yup, I'm a sophomore." Dena laughed loudly.

"You're supposed to pass for a sophomore?" I nodded.

"Yep, But I've got a lot of work to do…" I said trying to drop a hint that I really just wanted to be alone.

"You haven't been sleeping… It's because of a girl isn't it?" I was caught off guard by her question.

"Ahh… yeah it is." I said not quite sure what else to say.

"Well if you want to talk about it… I'm around." She said before jumping out the window she came in. _Truth is I came here to ignore it, forget it… but it looks like that is all but impossible._

**This chapter was pretty near unbearable to write for a couple of reasons, I've written 2 halves to two different chapters already, then my computer broke down forcing me to use someone else's which is starting a third chapter on a computer that isn't mine (I obviously prefer mine) But enough of that. I guess I'm done with this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it, don't forget to review, and remember Guy Fawkes! Knucks, rolls of twenty dollar bills, high fives, comments, and reviews in ye box. Catch ya on the flip side.**


	4. Broken

**Disclaimer: Corn chips is no place for a mighty warrior! And neither is fanfic… but what can you do since I'm obviously not Stephenie Meyer**

**Disclaimer Deuce: "You're like the Jedi Master of Bull shit" (name that line)**

**Embry's POV**

I woke up from a dream. I guess I had been able to pass out. I took in my surroundings for a moment in shock then remembered I was back in La Push. I looked up at my clock in surprise then jumped out of the window. I was an hour late to my shift at patrol. Originally I was going back to Minnesota on Sunday but Seth needed more time in Seattle. It was one A.M. I shifted once I was clear in to the woods and apologized almost immediately.

"_I'm so sorry for oversleeping."_

"_It's okay…" _It was Dena. _Why the heck didn't she wake me up? _I thought.

"_You were saying how you hadn't gotten much sleep lately… even though you were having nightmares." _Her mental images turned to me tossing and turning in my bed. I winced.

"_Do you want to talk about it?"_ She asked earnestly.

"_No."_ I didn't want to get into stories about the girl who mind fucked me in to this state.

"_Mind fucked? Oh now I need to know, besides you owe me for taking an hour of your shift."_ I grumbled but she did have a point.

"_Fine… I'll tell you tomorrow."_

"_Tomorrow is today, good morning, come on, out with it!"_

"_Don't you need sleep?"_

"_Not as much as I need to hear this!" Gossiping little…_

"_Hey! I won't tell anyone, promise."_

"_Not worried you'll tell someone, worried you'll think about it when tweedle Dee tweedle dum are phased_." She laughed in response to their new names. My mind wandered but I caught it quickly before I let it go. I was a bit too much as ease with this one.

"_Hey! What was that?"_

"_Nothing."_

"_Bull shit it was nothing!"_

"_Well when you've been a Wolf for long enough you get good at changing thoughts on the fly."_

"_How do you do it?"_

"_Well I started with singing "Oh, Canada" in my head every time I didn't want a pack member to know what I was thinking."_

"_You're shitting me right?"_

"_Nope, true."_

"_Nice! I'll need to try that out."_

"_Yeah… well I'm going to start patrolling."_

"_Yeah, I'm coming with you for the story!" _She thought at me happily. Kind of like a dog you lock in a trunk for an hour then open it and their still happy to see you.

"_Hey! That wasn't nice!"_

"_Oops, I forgot you could hear my thoughts."_

"_Yeah _whatever, I'm throwing a bullshit flag." I laughed first time since her.

"_So… who is she?"_

"_Well… for anonymity sake let's call her… Brittany."_

"_Heh… okay… Brittany, got it."_ I sighed, might as well tell it all, maybe then she'll understand.

"_I could act like being a wolf changed our relationship and maybe it did, but I can't blame that… I can't blame anything I guess it's my fault, I don't know."_

"_Woah, wait a second… please start from the beginning."_

"_Okay… Well it started a long time ago… the first time I saw her. We were at a gathering, she gave some sarcastic remark and smirked. Right then I knew I liked her. She was beautiful, confident, cocky, and funny. She held a sort of cynicism towards everyone and everything, nothing horrible but maybe something in the past? Maybe she was a pessimist. But there was something about her that truly stood out. More than her beauty her personality attracted me to her."_

"_Bull shit." _Dena laughed.

"_Pretty girls are a dime a dozen… but ones like her are one in a million."_

"_Sorry for interrupting."_

"_So anyway. When I first met her our ages were too extreme. We were in two different worlds. I told myself even though I liked her our ages would stop anything. She wouldn't be interested in me."_

"_Sad."_ Dena thought.

"_It was who I was. I was very analytical as a kid, crazy I know, I thought through every possibility before doing things that were important to me. I ran every contingency, even the crazy ones."_

"_Well… circumstances changed. Time passed. I guess we both matured. Something changed. The way she looked at me I guess… I had put it out of mind. So I didn't notice at first, the little things, then the little things started to add up. Looking back it's funny that I didn't see it earlier, but I guess I'd never been flirted with before. I don't know it's weird."_ I stopped realizing I'm rambling.

"_Sorry I'm rambling."_

"_It's okay…"_

"_So anyway, this 'Brittany' she started flirting with me. Well my feelings for her came back. To save you the gory details we got together."_

"_Ahh I like the gory details." _Dena snickered.

"_Quiet you!"_

"_Yes, Alpha Masta E" _I groaned at her.

"_Yeah… Well this "Brittany" and I went through our problems like everyone else. I was so Naïve. Hah, I probably still am. Maybe it was my naivety that ruined our relationship. She left me. Over time she met someone else, let's just call him "A tool." For future reference." _Dena started laughing again.

"_What! He is a tool! She went to him and used him to get over me? I don't know she just moved to him. It made me so angry. That to her I was so easily replaceable, that the next guy in line would do the job. No time for mourning, no time to heal, just get the new model." _I gro_wled angrily._

"_I should have known then. She cheated on him with me. Looking back I know I should regret it, but can't bring myself to. If that makes me a bad person then I am. She ended up leaving him for me. Everything was good, better than it was the first time around. Then another guy came along. Let's just call him 'an asshole' for ease." _I waited for her response but she didn't interrupt me.

"_Well an asshole from her past came back and complicated things. An asshole had feelings for her. She told me she didn't want him. I was a dumbass for believing her. I knew from the moment I saw him, how it happened. I KNEW she was going to leave me, in the pit of my stomach a hard aching feeling told me it all I just knew from that point he would take her from me… Even though she hasn't told me she's back with him I know it's going to happen sooner or later."_ She wanted to comfort me. I could feel it. While the thought was nice, I needed to think.

"_Go to bed, I need my time. I'll see you around La Push."_

When I finished my patrol I fell asleep again. I woke up starving. I made my way to the kitchen. The fridge had food in it but nothing edible. I couldn't eat straight butter. I turned back to see a note on the counter.

'_Embry, sorry didn't have time to get food there's money on the table for groceries, pick some up.'_ I snorted leaving the money she left on the table. _She'd been feeding a wolf on single income for plenty of time. I think the Cullen's won't mind picking up the bill this once._ I thought reaching in to my wallet to find some cash I had on me. From the very beginning I'd refused to get a credit card from the Cullen's even though they tried to give me one. I took a final look at the house before leaving for groceries that everything was in place.

**Rosalie's POV**

Something was up with Mike. He was really angry, and from what Jasper felt he thought it was aimed at us. Because of the stunt I pulled I was elected to fix it since it most likely had to do with me. If I wouldn't have put my nose, or rather my lips in his business I wouldn't be playing emotional doctor on a pissed off teenager._ Never again _I thought to myself. He was sitting alone at his table as usual but much more angry. Most times he looked unhappy, it was his neutral face. He didn't smile much. This was different. It was a definite anger.

I sat down across from him but he didn't look up.

"Mike, what's wrong?" He didn't look up but a dark laugh escaped his throat. In some other life that might have intimidated me.

"And… you care?" He asked in disbelief. _Truth be told no but this is my 'situation' to keep an eye on._

"Yes." I said lying through my teeth.

"Why?" he asked not as angry as before.

"I don't know." I said lying again.

"I can tell you. You don't care. You don't give a crap what kind of mood I am in." I started to protest but looked around. The tables around us had taken an interest in to our conversation. Mike stopped and noticed it too.

"Can we talk somewhere where people won't be listening?" He asked. I nodded immediately.

"Come on, follow me."

"But we can't leave, students can't just leave during lunch." He snorted in response.

"Oh ye of little faith." I didn't believe him at first as a teacher stood in front of the door.

"DLC needs us for band practice." The teacher looked apprehensive at first but nodded and let us through.

"Whose DLC?" I asked after we were out of ear shot.

"The band teacher, Mrs. Chap." I nodded as we walked down the tunnel under the street. Both of us didn't have anything to say really but I wasn't going to break the silence. Thankfully he spoke.

"You know why I know you don't care about what's going on with me?" I walked next to him silently.

"Because one day you make out with me, and the next days, next week act like nothing ever happened to begin with."

"I thought I was helping you out." I responded defensively.

"They will find something to hate about me no matter who helps me. They now talk about how you ignore me, when they get bored of that they'll call me fat, they'll say I'm ugly, they'll laugh because I have no friends. It doesn't matter what anyone does, they will keep doing it as long as I'm different. And since I can't change that I'm different it won't stop! And I wouldn't change it if I could!"

"Why does this concern me?" I said crossing my arms naturally walking next to him. _This is a waste of my time._

"It doesn't." he said coldly.

"Then why are you mad at me?" I said though I couldn't really care less. He stopped and faced me in the middle of the bland gray hallway.

"Listen, some of us don't live in your perfect dream world of daisies and butterflies where all the unicorns crap twenty dollar bills and sing songs about how perfect life is." _Damn, I'll need to tell Emmett that one, he'll laugh his ass off._

"Where everything works out perfectly always, and everyone always gets A's easily on everything, where everyone looks so damn perfect and beautiful. With your perfect boyfriend, you're perfect look, perfect face, and money. Some of us weren't dealt those cards." I was getting tired of his whining.

"What's your point?" I said impatient with his bitching.

"You still haven't figured it out? I'm not like you… I never had all those things. I… I… You didn't care for me at all and yet you kissed me, you know…" I stood awkwardly not saying anything, I still didn't understand why this was a big deal to him.

"I understand that you're out of my league, I get that you have your boyfriend… it all makes sense, you live in a different world than me… but if I meant nothing to you why did you kiss me?"

"What's it matter anyway?" I said finally running out of patience. The anger in his eyes slipped away and then I saw it, pain. For the first time I saw a deep pain in his eyes for the slightest moment before he tried to cover it up.

"That was my first kiss."

Embry's POV

I fell back on to my bed. I closed my eyes for a moment, unwilling to do any more catch up home work. I grabbed my acoustic guitar still staring at the ceiling. I felt like crap. I grabbed sat up against the wall leaning back and sighed heavily before starting to strum. I felt the words in my heart then the lump in my throat and began to sing.

"I wanted you to know I love the way you laugh  
I wanna hold you high and steal your pain away  
I keep your photograph and I know it serves me well  
I wanna hold you high and steal your pain" I heard movement outside my window.

"You can come in…" I said as I stopped strumming. Dena stepped in through my window.

"I drew the short straw, had to check in on you."

"ahuh." I said not believing her for a second.

"You should continue the song." I shrugged and started singing.

"'Cause I'm broken when I'm lonesome" She had started singing with me, which surprised me. she had an amazing voice.  
"And I don't feel right when you're gone away

You've gone away, you don't feel me, here anymore" She motioned that she would take the female part and I nodded.

"The worst is over now and we can breathe again  
I wanna hold you high, you steal my pain away  
There's so much left to learn, and no one left to fight  
I wanna hold you high and steal your pain." I could hardly believe how good she was at singing, she was no Amy Lee but she was good.

"'Cause I'm broken when I'm open  
And I don't feel like I am strong enough  
'Cause I'm broken when I'm lonesome  
And I don't feel right when you're gone away

'Cause I'm broken when I'm open  
And I don't feel like I am strong enough  
'Cause I'm broken when I'm lonesome  
And I don't feel right when you're gone away

'Cause I'm broken when I'm lonesome  
And I don't feel right when you're gone away" her voice faded.

"You've gone away  
You don't feel me here anymore." I sang alone. I followed the chord progression and the notes disappeared. I couldn't deny that I thought her voice was beautiful, I couldn't deny that I had feelings for her. I looked in to her eyes right now and she stared right back at me. I couldn't say I felt something for her. But I could say it was too soon. I looked away for a moment and her attention faltered.

"I should… go… yeah" she said awkwardly. I nodded and she disappeared. _She's too young, she's too innocent, she's too not screwed up like me._ I thought to myself as I threw my head back in to the pillow.

**ROMANS! COUNTRYMEN LEND ME YOUR EAR! Name that quote anyone? I HAS MY COMPUTER! Yes after a long parting my friend has returned to me so I thought I'd christen it with a chapter, I'm happy today, don't be a "fun cock-block" review, remember to drop your rolls of twenty dollar bills, high fives, knucks, and reviews off! And Catch you on the flip side.**


	5. Primus Hemi Mortalis

**Disclaimer: Sup peeps, not Stephenie Meyer still**

**Disclaimer Deuce: if you never hear from me again, you'll have to take the torches to the igloo's of Canada**

**Mike's POV**

I was alone again before school, but that's what I liked. I sat behind the piano playing softly, then frustration set in as I misplayed a part and couldn't remember it. I forced my hands to relax then switched songs to a song I'd played for years, Cannon in D. I heard the door opening. _Who the hell is here at 7:30 in the morning?_ I thought to myself. My question was answered quickly.

"Hey Mike…" I looked up and tried not to stare, as always she was the picture of beauty.

"Hi Rosalie." I said politely, but giving her no more than that.

"I didn't know you played piano." I didn't respond. I didn't know why she was here. I wanted to tell her to go but I couldn't.

"How long have you played?" She asked. It was getting harder for me to distinct between interest and her ploy.

"Five years now… Why are you here? I don't want your pity." I could see a hint of anger in Rosalie.

"I'm not here because I pity you."

"Well I doubt it's because you just found me to be so interesting that you wanted to talk… and you went out of your way to find me." I explained. The look in her eye was unsuspected. She smirked.

"You think you've got it all figured out then?"

"Pretty much, yeah I do." I said turning back the piano.

"The reason I'm here is because I wanted to apologize for how we kind of had our first conversation…"

"Ahuh…" I said sarcastically.

"You know you don't need to be an asshole." Rosalie said rolling her eyes. I laughed in response to her bluntness.

"Alright… so what now?"

"Well can we at least be friends?" She said looking me in the eyes. I nodded finally.

"But now what?" I said honestly not knowing what to do.

"I don't know want to come over some time? We got a sort of sound studio in the basement." Rosalie said shrugging it off. I nodded.

"That sounds like fun… definitely."

**Rosalie's POV**

I was finishing up my physic's homework when Renesmee entered the room looking for Carlisle.

"I have a question." She asked of him.

"Yes?"

"Was Nahuel really the first half vampire?"

"Not probably. Vampire lore tells of the first half blooded vampire, The "Primus Hemi Mortalis." Legend tells that he was powerful beyond reason but lived as a hermit. He lived with his father who like him had a special power. According to the legend his father could heal anything. Legend tells after traveling alone for many years, he stumbled across a woman who enchanted him, his '_Singer'_ He drank her blood, only then to realize the travesty in losing such beauty to the world. He summoned all of his powers of life, of healing and brought her back to life, only then did he realize she could bare him a child. They fell in love, and had a child, and the child in her mother's womb would drink her very life force. And her partner would bring her back to life. The birthing was extremely painful, but she survived with her lover's aid." Carlisle's paused the story looking uneasy, but quickly the look disappeared.

"What happened Grandpa?" I asked

"I don't know. The woman gave birth to a son, "Primus Hemi Mortalis" The man's amazing ability to sustain the woman's life kept her alive for over two hundred years, but she was only mortal… and eventually died. This hurt both the father and the son. The only vampires they kept in contact with were the Romanians… and only a select few… Some speculate that the Volturi only struck the Romanains after Primus Hemi Mortalis and his father cut off connections with them. Any real information burned to ashes with the Romanians…"

"What about Vladimir and Stefan?" I asked curiously.

"They have no knowledge of Primus Hemi Mortalis, none that we know of… Legend says they weren't very high in the in leadership, they were nothing more than surfs in the court of the Romanians. They refer to it as a myth. There is no history of where they came from, no history what they've done since the Volturi/Romanian conflict. But then again it could all be a myth."

"What about the Volturi, what do they say of it?"

"Nothing… nothing at all. They too treat it as a myth, perhaps they want to it be a myth so they keep hoping it is one."

"Why was he so feared?" I asked. Grandpa seemed so hesitant. He looked very uncomfortable.

"When you were born you almost confirmed the legend." He said but I didn't follow his line of thinking.

"What do you mean?" I asked confused.

"Your mother Bella's ability is a mental shield no one can get through, and your father Edward's ability is being able to read anyone's thoughts from a distance, besides Bella's of course." I nodded understanding.

"Your power is the opposite of both of them, you can pierce any shield with your mental images, by touch only." I think I understood what He was getting at but I didn't know how this related to the story.

"How does this confirm the legend?" Carlisle sighed as if just realizing it for the first time but more likely he put it out of his mind.

"The Legend says his father had the ability to heal… but his son… "Primus Hemi Mortalis" had the opposite… he could kill."

"What do you mean he could kill grandpa?"

"I don't know… but it was enough to keep the Volturi at bay for over two century. They never once attacked for fear of the Primus Hemi Mortalis."

"What changed?"

"Well no one knows for sure… but… it's believe that Primus Hemi-Mortalis killed his father severing the connection with the Romanians."

"I still don't understand why they feared one half mortal so much. I mean the Volturi must have outnumbered the Romanians." Carlisle nodded.

"Yes… back then the Volturi had amassed an army of nearly 90 Vampires. From what I've learned there was no ruling class in that time. No law. Vampires did as they pleased, they didn't hide themselves, there were much larger covens… but the Romanians ruled with only ten." Carlisle explained.

"Why though? How is it they were that powerful?" Ness asked. Carlisle looked he didn't want to scare anyone but continued.

"It isn't talked about often… but in that time there was a different kind of vampire… they were called 'pureblood' vampires. Emmett sat down next to me.

"Purebloods? I've never heard of them before. Why haven't I?" he said taking a vested interest.

"They were unimaginably powerful. They were… as human's stories told… only worse. They slept coffins like legends say. They didn't take to well to crosses, and stakes through the heart, they were hurt by garlic… and they did burn in direct sunlight… all except one… and even then all those things weakened them. And a silver bolt or bullet blessed by a priest would kill one."

"I don't understand it sounds like they would be easier to kill."

"Originally these were the only kind of vampires there were… but over time they evolved in to us… vampire hunters killed off most of the original vampires, but couldn't kill us off."

"How does that have anything to do with us?"

"Of those vampires, only the Purebloods survived… they were stronger, faster, and had special powers."

"Special powers like what?"

"they could turn in to bats, they could make any human fall in love with them at the mere eye contact, they had our powers… only they were much stronger, much faster…"

"There was only three ever… all of them connected to the Romanian Coven. The youngest was the father of Primus Hemi-Mortalis." Renesmee's eyes went wide.

"No one knows the name of Primus Hemi-Mortalis's father… but his grandfather's name is Alucard." I had heard this legend before, but Bella, Emmett, and Ness hadn't. I watched Jasper's body tighten up in fear. I had to force myself to stay calm. _They all died long before I was ever born as a human. _Realization and fear struck through Emmett's face, then fear shortly after. Bella and Renesmee didn't understand though.

"Who is Alucard?" Bella asked.

"Alucard was the son of the Pureblood king, Alucard was the son of the Original Vampire. Alucard… was the son of Dracula." Fear struck through Bella's eyes then Renesmee started to understand and nodded.

"Dracula is a myth…" she said confidently.

"No… he wasn't… Felix killed him…"

"I thought u said they were the most powerful, how did Felix kill him?" Carlisle shook his head.

"The seven of the Coven that weren't purebloods died easily, Alec and Jane used their powers on them and they were killed by the massive force of vampires… the survivors of the Romanian coven fled that night… But Alec and Jane's mental attacks had absolutely no effect on the two surviving purebloods. Soon it was just Dracula and Alucard against the Volturi army of fifty of the best the world had in vampires. The fighting lasted all night, Dracula and Alucard were playing with them, letting think they got the upper hand then killing them, one by one, slowly, deliberately, and viciously. It wasn't even fair. The morning came and Demetri and some other vampire's managed to force Alucard outside in to the sun where he started burning, but Alucard being the very powerful being he was still fought on, killing more vampires until Demetri finally killed him in the sun, shot a silver crossbow bolt blessed by a priest in to his heart, he burst in to nothing. Felix and his vampires were having a much harder time with Dracula, now down to only ten. Felix managed to cut off his head, then burned down the building starting with the room with they had fought it… nothing was left, no body part, nothing, he was gone… Felix with the sacrifice of forty vampires killed Alucard and Dracula." _Carlisle left out one gory detail from Renesmee. He told me that Dracula looked up and smiled for one moment before he stopped moving, he smiled at Felix._

"Grandpa, how do you know all of this?" Renesmee asked.

"Felix told me himself while I was with the Volturi, we became good friends."

**Embry's POV**

I heard a loud roar, with a strong bellow; it could mean one thing, trouble. I jumped out of my window immediately, sure it was winter and I was barefooted in only basketball shorts but it didn't bother me I sprinted to the source of the noise, it was the border, not too far away, I'd be faster in human form. I ran through the forest, everything was as I remembered it, every tree in the right place, every stone, even under snow was where I remembered it. I sprinted, not letting the sticks and twigs slashing my face faze me even for a moment. I tumbled out in to the opening as I saw my three new pups growling at two standing figures. At first glance I expected as much but then my eyes adjusted and I recognized the figures, one was a vampire…

"Oh piss off pups, will you?" Leah rolled her eyes. They didn't stop for a moment. Her eyes turned to me as I stepped out. I turned my attention to Patrick and his red glowing eyes._ Blood red, from his latest human victim _I thought.

"Call off your cubs before they get themselves hurt." He taunted me.

"No. Leave now, this is your only warning." He laughed at me.

"You can't possibly take me." he said rolling his eyes.

"Maybe… maybe not… but with my pack you are little more than entertainment." Leah gulped at the connotation.

"_Your_ pack?" she said emphasizing the word. I nodded as Collin and Brady jumped out of the woods after hearing the howl. They stood on the near Dena, Zack and Drew giving them support. I heard a loud rumbling and smiled. Next came Paul leaping out of the woods and stopping at my left shoulder, then Jared only a step behind him who stopped at my right, then Quil who was a step behind him, came to my right side next to Jared.

"Yes… my pack." I said. I felt Paul tensing up next to me and his muscles flexing in anger, he was staring at Patrick's eyes.

"And my Pack doesn't like murderers do we Jared?" Jared shook his wolfy head not once letting his vision turn from Patrick.

"And what do we do with murdering Vampires Paul?" I heard a deep laugh then a dark grin on his face. He chomped his mouth together.

"That's right! We rip them to shreds, piece by piece." I said putting a hand on Paul's shoulder calming him down slightly.

"Nine versus two? That's hardly fair, where's your honor?" Patrick asked, Leah was next to him.

"Tell me, how honorable are you when you corner a human that is slower, weaker, couldn't kill you if they wanted to… tell me how it's fair to steal some one's future, from them. Kill someone's father, someone's mother, kill someone's daughter, and kill someone's son. Tell me how is that fair?" I stumbled over his words.

"The Pack is a family. It doesn't matter if the fight is fair, if you try to hurt one of us, you try to hurt all of us. We fight, we argue, we don't see eye to eye, but each one of them are my brother, and no one is going to hurt them without dealing with me!" I finally yelled. Leah looked away, then back at me.

"We just came to visit Patrick's parents, they don't know he's still alive, if you won't let us go to them then bring them to us." I shook my head immediately.

"I can't, we are the guardians of La Push, we WILL NOT put one of our own in danger, we will not allow it to happen and we sure as hell won't help him."

"This is because I dumped you? Just get over it! So I'm not going out with you, don't take it out on Patrick! It wouldn't be a big deal at all for the Cullens!"

"He is a murderer! Look at his eyes! You know exactly what that means!" I yelled back at her.

"I gave my one warning, he has five seconds to turn tail and flee."

"You can't honestly expect us to turn and run." She said in disbelief.

"Five." I said void of emotion. She rolled her eyes at me.

"Four." I said as Paul crouched getting ready to charge.

"Three." Leah finally realized how serious and pushed Patrick until he was sprinting away. I forced myself to relax then Leah turned back and ran back but Patrick kept running away. I didn't say anything hoping she was reconsidering her position on murdering vampires.

"Why isn't Sam here? Why isn't Sam leading the pack instead of Embry… You're not the normal pack leader."

"I'm only here because Seth asked me to take over for a bit while he was working on college work."

"Why did Seth ask you to take over for him, why isn't Sam leading the pack?" I saw out of the corner of my eye Paul laughing then Quil quickly silenced him by pawing him.

"Damn it Embry, what the hell is going on?"

"Sam quit phasing." I said hoping to drop the subject but knowing she wouldn't.

"Why did Sam quit phasing?" I said nothing. She stared in to my eye.

"Embry, stop trying to protect me, it's annoying! Why the hell did Sam stop phasing?"

"When he proposed to Emily promised her he'd stop phasing for her, so they could raise a family." I watched the pain in her features. I wanted to make it stop, and at the same time I hated the pain itself. The fact that I could see clearly as day she still had strong real feelings for Sam even after dating me. I knew it was selfish, but that moment of pain made my pain worse. Like what we had was insignificant. I knew it wasn't insignificant but that's how she made me feel. Paul nudged me at my shoulder pushing me out of my inner monologue. I looked in to his eyes and fire burned in them. I nodded understanding then turned back to Leah.

"If he kills a human in Washington we will hunt him down, no matter how far he runs, and kill him, without mercy, without remorse." She nodded understanding.

"If he comes back changed, we can let his mother see him, but we have a responsibility to her. We will take your word for if he has really changed." Leah nodded still obviously shook up from the news about Sam." She nodded. She wasn't angry at me she almost looked like she understood.

She left and in the distance they both disappeared from my sight. I turned around and sighed making my way back to the forest. The rest of the pack unphased and joined me. I turned to Zack.

"Good call Zack, calling to us instead of trying to take him by yourself." He grumbled

"I could have taken him."

"He's telekinetic. You had no way of knowing that, but that's why it's so important to tell pack. Vampires fight dirty, they'll use any cheap trick to win… don't ever give them that chance…" Zack nodded. I patted him on the back hardily.

"Good job man." My attention turned to Paul next to me.

"Thought you were gonna kill them all, if not you Paul." Paul grumbled.

"I wanted to kill that bastard… I could see the people he killed in his eyes… I could picture the lives he destroyed, the lives ruined by the people who disappeared because of him." I nodded I understood. Paul might be a hot head but his hot head was in the right place. We split up and everyone left. I breathed out heavily. I hung my head staring at the ground. I kept walking aimlessly then I heard a twig crack behind me. I turned there was Dena. She looked in to my eyes which had to look bloodshot and tired, with the weight of a thousand worries on it.

"That was Brittany wasn't it…" she said referencing our talk. I nodded.

"Yeah… Yeah it was…" she nodded.

"Which means… that was 'An Asshole' wasn't it?" I chuckled.

"Yep, that was definitely an asshole."

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked, she put her arm on my shoulder for support. I couldn't take advantage of her… it wasn't me. maybe I'd taken advantage of Leah in the past, but I wouldn't take advantage of Dena, no matter how lonely I was… or how appealing she may be. _She's still a kid…_ I thought to myself.

"No… I just want to be alone." She nodded leaving towards her house. I made my way in to my window. I thought of a song then started to chuckle. _L.G. Fuad._

"Let's get fucked up and die.  
I am speaking figuratively of course.  
Like the last time that I committed suicide.  
"Social suicide."

"Yeah, so I'm already dead,

On the inside but I can still pretend.

With my memories and photographs I have learned to love the lie.

I want to know what it's like to be awkward and innocent, not belligerent.

I want to know how it feels to be useful and pertinent and have common sense,yeah.

Let me in, let me into the club 'cause I want to belong,

And I need to get strong.

And if memory serves I'm addicted to words.

And they're useless...in this department.

Let's get fucked up and die.

I'm riding hard on the last legs of every lie.

And the BMX bike of my life is about to explode.

I'm about to explode.

I'm a mess I'm a wreck.

I am perfect and I have learned to accept,

All my problems and shortcomings 'cause I'm so visceral, yet deeply inept.

I want to thank you for being a part of my.

"Forget me nots and marigolds and other things that don't get old."

Is it legal to do this?

I surely don't know.

It's the only way I have learned to express myself,

Through other peoples descriptions of life.

I'm afraid, I'm alone and entirely useless...in this department.

Let's get fucked up and die.

For the last time with feelings we'll try not to smile.

As we cover our heads and drink heavily into the nights that still shock and surprise.

I believe that I can overcome this and beat everything in the end.

But I choose to abuse for the time being.

Maybe I'll win. But for now I've decided to die.

Sister soldier you've been such a positive influence on my mental frame.

If I could ever repay you I would but I'm hard up for cash and my memory lacks

Initiative. Goddamn the liquor store's closed we were so close to scoring.

It hurts, it destroys 'til it kills. I am tired and hungry and totally useless...

In this department. "

**Well I updated again, only days after the other one. I told someone I'd update before I left on a crazy Trip where two people plan on kidnapping me and keeping me stuck in an Igloo in Kanadia, keeping me locked there. No kidding, so if I don't come back held to Kanadia with the torches! Burn down the Igloos! … okay now that that is done. I really enjoyed writing this chapter. Yes there is significance in the legend. This chapter is quite a bit bigger than usual, but it is my normal size chapter from before, even a bit small for that. Thanks for all the reviewers who are coming back after a long slumber and such like that, you hibernated over the summer so no sleeping during the winter! Remember High fives, knucks, rolls of twenty dollar bills, and reviews. Catch you on the flip side.**


	6. Sunday, Bloody Sunday

**Disclaimer: It's almost like your heavens trying everything to tell you I'm still not Stephenie Meyer**

**Disclaimer Deuce: This chapter is UNETHICALLY soon after my last update, DO NOT expect this to happen too often, I must have drank too much eggnog and decided to write again…**

**Embry's POV**

_"I love you Embry" Leah said to me. Embry embraces Leah holding her tightly. I never want to let go. They kiss softly. Leah Disappears. Embry is in a cave with many stalactites and stalagmites. There is a river that goes through the whole cave. The river cleaves the path. Embry knows Leah is at the end of it. I see a movie on the ground. 'thanks for helping her.' I see on a note by the movie. Embry makes his way to the end of the path. I look up the waterfall at the end of it. Embry is climbing up a cliff near a waterfall. I am. I throw myself up further knowing my goal is near. Embry pushes himself further his goal in sight. I can make it, I cross the waterfall. The water hit's Embry hard. I feel something bad coming on. Embry climbs faster hoping if he can do more, do better, the result will be different. I knew I was wrong. Embry finally climbed up. Then I saw it. The note… it was left by Patrick. She was in his arms."Thanks for helping put her back together for me." he said with a smile as she pulled herself closer to him._ "_Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! This is a dream this is a dream this is a dream!"_

I pulled the covers off me slowly forcing myself in to a seated position on my bed. I ran my palms through my eyes and fingers through my hair in frustration. My palms finally stopped on my temples. I stared at the green and white carpeted floor. I wanted to cry. But didn't, I wanted to scream, but stopped myself, I wanted to run, but stayed sitting. It was going to be one of those days that were horrible for no other reason than because of a bad dream. I missed her.

_How could she not see it? What she was doing to me. How could she not see it? What had I done to deserve this treatment, this pain, this torture? Can I be relieved in the idea that if she knew what she did to me she wouldn't do it? Or maybe she knows, maybe it wouldn't change anything. Was my Façade so good? Couldn't she see through my forced fake smile? My insincere laugh. And all the while I was watching her, hoping not to see something that made it worse. How was it possible? I'd rather believe ignorance than believe she knew what she was doing to me. I would wish the pain she's put on me on only a select few people in the world, and never on someone I whispered the words "I love you" to and never to my first love. How have I wronged her so? Please let me know. My heart screams in agony, have I somehow merited this response? If so please tell me what I did so evilly to incur your wraith so that I may never make the mistake again. Nothing passed my notice. Not the way she smiled when he walked near her, not the way he slid his arm around her back, none of it. I can only wish, only hope that if she knew how she hurt me so she wouldn't. I realize how much I miss it all, the comfort of having someone you can trust. Someone you can be comfortable with. Someone who can fill the gaping hole in my heart that is apparent. The hole I've been trying to hide for so long. It's the kind of hole that can only be filled with the warm embrace of a loved one. In the morning and at the end of night I realize how much it hurts. I want someone to understand but never understand how much pain this is. No one else can have had it as bad as me. No one else can fully have understood. I don't want anyone to be able to look at me and say "yeah I've felt that before just pick yourself up and live your life." Fuck you. _

_Once I had hope some__where in my heart I could always feel it'd work out. But it's gone now, it's over. _

_A__m I really that weak and everyone moves on with their l__ives as if the pain isn't there? I__t's like the first day without a sun__. Nearly everyone in the world will go through heart break at some time. Nearly everyone who has ever loved as felt the sting of the absence of love. It cripples me, it controls me, and it wrecks me. And everyone else suffers and it isn't catastrophic. _

_Am I weak? Am I so controlled by this that it will control my life and I won't be able to let go? Will I slip in to a drone like state, going through the motions of life until someone or something rips me out of it? _

I stood up slowly then changed in clothes for the day. I needed someone. I desperately wanted needed someone to hold. That was just too bad because I won't get it, so I'll just have to endure. _I could talk to Dena._ The idea warmed my body momentarily. _No… I'm not dropping all my problems on her shoulders, besides she's still seventeen. At that age she should be in simple relationships, not trying to fix a screwed one, besides what girl wants to hear a guy groan about their ex. No, as much as I wanted to, going to her was the wrong answer. _

I cracked my back and made my way down stairs for breakfast. _You've got to be kidding me._ I thought to myself. There in my kitchen making food was Dena.

"Hey, I thought I'd stop by, your mom let me in." I blinked a couple times. _Sure, when I feel like shit and need someone there is the poor soul I want to ruin right in front of me?_ I forced a smile on my face, no matter how insincere.

"Great." The silence hung in the air, the only sound being the sizzling of the bacon on the stove. She turned around and smiled at me. She was wearing short jean shorts, but I didn't even know if it could qualify since there probably wasn't enough material to cover my calf muscle. He wore a black tank top that left little to the imagination. So far it seemed innocent enough but the argument reoccurred in my head. _Why the hell I'm a pushing her away._

"So you're leaving today, right?" I started to examine the tile on the ground, anything to stop looking up and down her, and by the sound in her voice she knew it too.

"What are you looking at down there?" Dena said with a laugh.

"The intricacies of the tile floor." I answered. She was getting closer. I backed away blindly a couple times, and then belatedly I realized I had backed myself in to a corner. She closed the gap between us only leaving perilous inches between our bodies. I could feel the warmth coming off her body. That comforting body heat I yearned for. I looked in to her beautiful eyes, they sparkled with a fiery strength.

"You won't make a move because the world says I'm too young. I look just as old as you do. I can see it in your eyes. I could see it when you were showing off for me. It was kind of hot. The truth we both know is you won't make a move because you're afraid of the consequences but I don't see you pushing me away." She said before closing the distance to me and kissed me. My defenses and pretenses fell. Her arms slid up my sides and locked on the back of my neck as she pulled me down to her. Without a conscious decision to do so I slid my hands around her back. She played with my tongue in my mouth and my hands slid down her back then down to the back of her thighs and lifted her up to me. She wrapped her legs around my hips and a noise escaped my lips. This felt so good, so right so perfect. My hands ran up her back under her shirt feeling her smooth skin. _You're not the only one who can get someone new Leah. _The thought registered in my head. _No! Damn it no! _I screamed silently. I pulled back quickly and softly set Dena down on the ground.

"I'm sorry Dena, I can't do this to you."

"I'd say you were doing just fine."

"No… you don't understand. I've got too much baggage for you to claim."

"I can handle it." she said pleading with me.

"And maybe you can, but it'd be unfair to you if I made you go through what I'm going through."

"You want this… I want this, it's just that simple." She said running her hands up my chest."

"You deserve much better than this broken man." I said honestly.

"I don't want anything else. The other wolves are immature." I laughed.

"I'm immature." I remarked.

"Yeah but in a mature kind of way." She said. I tried not to smile but I couldn't resist.

"Embry, you're a good person, even on your worse day you're the guy I want to spend time with."

"You maybe want to, but I could never put you through that… It's not fair to you." She didn't quite understand then realization crossed her eyes.

"You still love her, don't you?" she asked seriously. I sighed then responded.

"Yes... Yes I do. I can't let myself use you. I genuinely like you… But my heart is not mine to give right now. Maybe someday when I'm a fixed person… maybe someday when I'm put back together maybe then I'll be the man you deserve. Until then you should find someone worth you to be with."

"And parade him in front of you… Probably make you jealous."

"Probably…" I said nodding. She looked away from me but I wrapped my warm hands around her face and forced her to look me in the eye.

"You are worth more than this broken man." Then I leaned down and kissed her again and pulled away.

I grabbed the now burnt bacon and eggs on my plate and grabbed a second for Dena.

"Are you staying for breakfast?"

"What?" she asked.

"Are you staying for breakfast?"

"Ahh… sure… wouldn't that be pretty awkward?" I shrugged in response.

"Yeah… maybe, but then again yesterday I thought it'd be awkward making out with a minor." I received a firm punch to the shoulder that stung.

"That's not funny." She said staring at me seriously. I tried not to smile, then not to grin, then not to laugh, all three failing. I received a very hard kick in my shin from the other side of the table.

"Ow!" I said rubbing my leg. I started to eat breakfast but midway through I decided to ask the question I'd been wondering since we started eating.

"Why today? Why did you do this today? I've been here all weekend."

"Well I was hardly going to ask you out when I knew you for three hours." She said stating the obvious. I nodded in agreement.

"And… well, I didn't want to put it off… We all know you're leaving today to go back to Minnesota… I was hoping to sway you in to staying… it's one of the reasons why your mom was so happy to see me." I chuckled. _Yeah, mom would try and get me to stay by nearly any means. _

"I guess I forced myself to work up the courage… it's kind of hard." I laughed.

"Yeah… I know, believe me I know." I looked down at the food on my plate and immediately felt sad. I tried to hide it but I failed.

"What is it?"

"The reason I'm not going out with you. The whole time I went out with Leah I had this feeling in the back of my mind that I was her second choice… her second choice to Sam… It hurt so much when she left me; how Sam left her… it hurt so much. I don't want to do that to anyone. I don't want to hurt someone like that." She nodded. She was finished with her food so she grabbed the plates and walked it over to the dishwasher. She walked over to me and I was just staring at the design on the place mat. She grabbed my head turned it to face her and passionately kissed me. I felt alive for a moment but forced myself not to do more than respond in the like.

"Goodbye Embry."

"Goodbye Dena." I said as she made her way out the door.

**Mike's POV**

I was nervous. _Why the hell did I even agree to this? Isn't it obvious? The hottest girl you've ever seen invited you to her house, you were going to turn her down? What if it's a trick? It isn't a trick, she's not one of the popular kids. She isn't nice. She's doesn't care about me. Why did she invite me over? _I was sweating, and trying not to look like it. Everything was too perfect here. I swore I didn't want to walk in to the house as if I would ruin its perfection with my presence. I stood at the door. It was Rosalie's sister that ran right up to me. I bent backwards naturally taking a defensive position.

"Hi Mike!"

"Uhh… Hi… Alice." I said awkwardly. I heard Rosalie scoff behind her.

"Don't scare away my guest Alice."

"I wasn't! I was just being friendly, much friendlier then you are!" I stood awkwardly as they exchanged remarks. Alice's boyfriend was leaning up against the opposite wall of me not afraid of me, but wary.

"Jasper! Don't be impolite!" Alice said back at the man I had noticed previously. He pushed himself off the wall and walked towards me. His eyes seemed tense, but his manner and body were completely relaxed.

"Hello I'm Jasper." Emmett came in to the room and I felt my body tense. He came up to Rosalie and put an arm around him. I tried not to show it to the best of my ability but I felt a stabbing pain in my stomach. _This isn't want I needed at all, why the hell did I come? What did I expect._ I forced a neutral face and swallowed hard. Something flicked in all of their eyes but Jasper moved to Emmett's side and said something quietly to him and they both left. The last two of the teens came together, almost connected at the hip. Lovesick puppies that couldn't disconnect annoyed me, it was pathetic. Edward regarded me with a smile but it looked kind of forced. _Why does he dislike me already? I've never even talked to him, never said anything bad to him, or about him, not even in school._

"Hi I'm Bella, this is Edward." She said with a smile.

"Hi, I'm Mike… I've seen you around but I don't have any classes with either of you." _Why is that important? They know that? You stupid idiot, calm down and stop being a tool. You saw the way Emmett held Rosalie, what the heck did you expect? You KNOW she's going out with him. I don't know I expected that the kiss meant something more to her. Expect? No I guess I just hoped, I was a fool to think, to even hope she felt that way. No one has ever shown any interest in me, why the heck would the prettiest girl I ever met be interested in me? Stupid, stupid, stupid Mike!_

"Hey Mike, you okay?" Rosalie asked smiling. _Is that a real smile or just another fake smile? I can't read her like I can read other people. Maybe you don't want to see the truth._

"Ahh, yeah fine… so… umm… uh.. what do you… uh.. want to do?" She shined one of those beautiful smiles again.

"I don't know, you could check out Embry's drum set down stairs."

"Is that okay? I mean… would it be okay for me to play it?" she laughed with a smile.

"Of course… why wouldn't it be?" _There's unwritten rules of drummers, and one is never play another's instrument without their permission. _

"Uh, I don't know but… well… you sure it's okay?"

"Yeah, of course, I play it all the time." _That's fine for you but I'm not living in the same house, I don't want anyone getting angry at me._

"If you say so…" I made my way down stairs and stared in shock at the room. It was long and raised on a stage. I climbed up to the drum set that was nicer than mine, but about as nice as my older brothers, or I couldn't tell a major difference. I hit the drums a couple times, then the snare in some warm ups. Rosalie had told me about this music system they set up. I opened the drawer and stared at the laptop wondering. _Is it okay that I use this? I don't want to make anyone mad._ I just didn't want to cause trouble. Rosalie walked down the stairs, once again a vision of beauty.

"You have a song you want to play?" I did have one in mind but I wasn't sure if they'd have it.

"Umm, yeah I'd like to try "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" by Pillar."

"Don't you mean by U2?" She asked.

"No… Pillar's version is… well… awesome." Rosalie smiled finding it.

"If it's on youtube we can hook it up." I nodded. I started playing the opening drum rift. Rosalie left up the stairs and I continued to play getting in to the song.

**Embry's POV**

I made my way in to the house tired from the long weekend, tired from the emotional rollercoaster, tired from the nightmares. I heard drumming, good drumming. Rosalie was standing at the top of the stairs talking with Emmett.

"Yeah whatever, Emmett, you were trying to prove a point to him. We need him to like us so he doesn't want to find out who we are, so don't do that shit when he's around."

"Okay, fine… I'll behave… but not when he's not around." he said with an evil smile.

"I was hoping you wouldn't." Rosalie smiled back. I gagged theatrically. They turned back to me. Rosalie scowled.

"Yeah whatever, you can go back to sucking on his face after you answer my question."

"What?" Rosalie said annoyed.

"Who the hell is on my Trap set?"

"Mike is." I shook my head.

"He doesn't know drummer etiquette, don't use a drummers set without their permission." She rolled her eyes at me.

"I assume he knew he was hesitant to play without your permission. " I laughed.

"So I guess he knows Drummer etiquette."

"Drummer etiquette, bull shit!"

"Well whatever, I'm going to bed."

"Something happen in La Push?"

"Well… let's just say I had a very long weekend.

**This Chapter is brought to you by the letters D, T, M, and the number 9. Seriously though someone made a ludicrous request for me to update this story before new years (even though I updated my other story last week). This is an extreme request because usually I take at least a week off after writing then another week, then a week and a half to write or longer. So reviewer, you know who you are (and if you read reviews, you know who they are too) so I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY. Don't you reviewers ever say I never done nothing for ya'z. So I know I might have said 'Hey the story is going to get happier and it's getting there, but every so often I'm hit with an idea and inspired to write, change things here and there, put this here, and there… anything for a better story. But in general it's moving in that direction that is less… well depressing, but life right after a break up isn't all smiles. So believe me when I say happier times are ahead, but without the struggle, experiences lose their meaning. Thank you to all my loyal reviewers, you inspire me to keep writing, stick with me for the foreseeable future for tons of story. Remember reviews, high fives, knucks, and rolls of twenty dollar bills. Catch you on the flipside. **


	7. This is your life

**Disclaimer: I was kidnapped by ninjas, ninja's who forced me to not write, and by ninja's I mean video games, and not write I mean play video games, oh and I'm still not Stephenie Meyer**

**Disclaimer Deuce: sorry about the delay in this chapter, besides video games I've been watching a certain series all the way through… the series has 10 seasons.**

**Rosalie's POV**

"Yesterday is a wrinkle on your forehead." _Where the hell is that coming from… is that Mike?_

"Yesterday is a promise that you've broken  
Don't close your eyes… Don't close your eyes…  
This is your life and today is all you got now." I followed the voice I faintly heard in the halls knowing it was Mike.

"Yeah, and today is all you'll ever have." I was jogging down the hall realizing how far I was actually moving. _Have I really talked to him enough to pick out his voice from this distance?_

"Don't Close your eyes…  
don't close your eyes

This is your life, are you who you want to be?  
This is your life, are you who you want to be?" I turned the corner and heard his voice clearly following it.

"This is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be  
when the world was younger and you had everything to lose" I could see him now. He was sitting under the stairs with CD player in hand singing. _Why the heck is he way out here?_

"Yesterday is a kid in the corner  
Yesterday is dead and over." I moved out of his vision and mine and just listened.

"This is your life, are you who you want to be?  
This is your life, are you who you want to be?  
this is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be?  
when the world was younger and you had everything to lose." Words got caught in my throat at the lyrics. I turned and walked away quickly and silently.

Mike's POV

"Don't close your eyes  
don't close your eyes  
don't close your eyes  
don't close your eyes.

This is your life are you who you want to be  
This is your life are you who you want to be

This is your life, are you who you want to be  
This is your life, are you who you want to be  
This is your life, is it everything you dreamed it would be  
When the world was younger and you had everything to lose

And you had everything to lose." I sang with my CD player. I got up and looked around the corner quickly. _No one is there. _But I could have sworn someone was. I pushed it out of my mind and made my way in to the hallways.

"Hey look who it is! It's Ivy!" yelled Nick. I groaned and rolled my eyes.

"Hey look who it is, it's that short obnoxious fullback."

"What did you call me?" He said trying to intimidate me walking up to me. The truth is he used to intimidate me when he wasn't shorter than me. He was much stronger than me though. There was a reason he was the full back on the football team from fifth grade to freshmen year. He was the only kid stronger than me in grade school. Last year I decided I was done with football. He came up to my dad and asked why I wasn't playing football, he said the team needed me. That alone got me to join again… being part of something that needed me… _What a joke, the jerk led the insults against me with his friends._ I was tested against each linemen individually, I was the best, and yet they all hated me. I would never belong in their world. I was different, I knew it, and more importantly they knew it. I stared at him. I couldn't believe part of me wanted to be accepted by this blowhard. Standing close to him was the only person in my grade who actually intimidated me. _Ryan Warner._ _He was the starting running back on the varsity team… as a freshmen_. I looked at him for a moment. I'd known him for over a year now and even though he spent most his time with that jerk Nick I couldn't remember him ever insulting or being mean to me. _Then why does he still intimidate you?_ _Because he's the only person I don't think I could take in a fight._

I ignored Nick's continued insults contemplating what I'd just realized. _Why the hell hasn't he joined everyone else in being mean to me? Just because he hasn't been someone insulting doesn't mean he's a friend._ I reminded myself. I tried to think of why he did it. Why he didn't join in with the crowd, or stop them. Was it his bland attempt at being a good person? It bugged me not understanding, but I guess that's where I would stay.

**Ironman's POV**

_I couldn't believe she was gone. Gone and there was nothing I could have done to stop it. I tried but I was powerless. I'd never felt so powerless in my life. What the hell was that thing? Was it a vampire?_ I thought vampires were myth. I'd seen things that would turn most people's insides out. I tried to move my left arm and immediately regretted in biting down on my lip in pain. A nurse ran in to the room.

"Mr. Johnson, please don't move, you were lucky you didn't die, but you still need time to heal."

"I'll be fine… I always am." I said in response. I reached for my button down shirt with a hole clean through both sides.

"Sir, you were impaled through your whole shoulder… a quarter inch closer to your lungs and you'd be dead… you need to take time to heal."

"That's just the thing, I'm not dead and since you can hardly keep me here I'm leaving." The Doctor burst in to the room his eyes down at his clipboard. He looked up and immediately tried to ease me back in to the bed.

"Before you go I'd like you to give me your account of what happened one last time." I rolled my eyes. _They don't believe me but I know what I saw._

"After returning from active duty yesterday I went out with my wife. We were walking down third street south and then a guy jumped us, but he came out of nowhere… People don't sneak up on me."

"What do you mean 'People don't sneak up on you.' Could you elaborate?" I shrugged.

"I'm a Green Beret, specialization in hand to hand combat, small melee weapons, and disarming people. I'm always aware of my surroundings. I'm telling you he just appeared."

"Please continue with your story." The Doctor said looking down at his pad.

"He grabbed me by the front of my shirt and threw me fifteen feet in to an alley… I was impaled by something… I don't know he bit my wife… she went stiff, didn't even resist as he picked her up. He away… I could make that out… but he had to be running at thirty miles an hour… maybe faster…"

"I see… well Mr. Johnson I'm recommending you have a full psychological evaluation." He said still not looking up from his notepad. I didn't like where this was going and saw two men in uniform outside of the door.

"I passed a psych exit exam three days ago before I came back. I'm completely fine." The doctor still hadn't looked up at me.

"Yes… well traumatic events can cause psychological break downs." He said talking in to his notepad.

"Look at me for a second!" I yelled at him. He immediately looked up at me.

"I've killed people before, I've seen people killed in cold blood, I've done it myself. I've sleep soundly afterwards knowing I've made the world a better place. I've seen and experienced things that would drive people to the brink of sanity and I've remained sane. I'm not insane I'm telling the truth. And I'm not going to be taken away to some mental institute!" The Doctor nodded to the two officers. They made their way in.

"Legally you can't stop me."

"Unless we have probable cause to believe you're a danger to society, with your skill set and your mental state you qualify for both."

"Mr. Johnson please come with us we don't want to hurt you." _You shouldn't be worried about me._ I moved my shoulder a bit feeling sharp pain in it. I feigned a weakness and falling down to one knee when I got off the bed. The first officer ran forward to try and catch me. my left arm shot up to his throat stunning him. My shoulder screamed in pain but I ignored it and pulled out his taser from his belt using his body for protection from his partner. I spun the stunning weapon in my hand and fired the shot at his partner peeking out from my cover of his comrade. The prongs caught directly on his chest and he went down immediately. The officer coming to his senses over me began to shake the cob webs out. I hit his temple with the butt end of the taser dropping him to the ground. I quickly grabbed his gun and leveled it at the doctor.

"Don't move." I said while my gun stayed aimed steadily at the doctor.

"What do you expect to do? How do you plan to escape?" I laughed at him.

"I'm a survivor, I've survived in much harsher environments than urban Kansas." The Police officer I tased was starting to come to and I leveled my gun at him as he looked up at me.

"You wouldn't shoot a police officer."

"If I wouldn't shoot you don't you think you're detainment of me is unwarranted?" He tensed up and I immediately knew what he was doing. I ran across the room his hand caught on the holster clip of his gun which was still locked. I took another stride and rammed him in to the wall stopping his attempts.

"Bad mistake…" I said before knocking him out with a blow to the temple." I turned my attention back to the doctor.

"Doctor…"

"Please don't hurt me… I was just doing what I thought was in your best interest."

"Is there any duct tape in this room?"

"What? No, of course there isn't."

"Sorry then."

"What do you mean?" He asked before I knocked him out like the other two. I grabbed all gear I could from the first officer including his shirt, jacket, badge, and extra ammo for the gun a grabbed. I pulled off his belt and put it on. I pulled on the shirt he was wearing ignoring the pain in my shoulder. I pulled on his jacket and holstered his gun and calmed my nerves. After a quick breath I turned out of the room and causally left.

"Davis Johnson." A woman said stopping me.

"I'm sorry but you've got the wrong guy, I'm officer Donavan." She smiled at me calmly.

"You're Davis Johnson, born and raised in Hutchinson Kansas, graduated an honor student, and one of the captains of the football team, you're right handed, loathe smokers because your grandfather died of it, your first dog's name was Cody, and your mission tag is Ironman." Everything but the last one didn't surprise me. My tag wasn't something thrown around causally, only my unit and our direct supervisors were supposed to know it.

"So you know who I am, that doesn't mean I should trust you." She opened a door to her right and beckoned me in and I followed.

"I made sure this room didn't have any listening devices in it it's secure for the time being." I nodded.

"I heard about the statement you gave yesterday to the doctors when you were admitted." I nodded but still unsure.

"I'm here to tell you there are vampires, and what you saw and experienced is real. After extensive research in to the field of vampire's and their habits we're forming a team to track, learn their secrets, and kill them. I want you to be the first member and the commanding officer of that team."

"And if I refuse?"

"If you refuse I'll let you leave this room, but where do you think you'll run?"

"I was thinking about catching a flight to Mexico." She smiled at me.

"No, you're thinking a bus to Canada… it's you're survival instincts to lie, but we both know that'd be the smart choice. You'll need those survival instincts. You can turn your back on your wife, on what you saw, or you can make a difference, protect people from the monsters they don't know about."

"I want it." I said confidently.

"If you choose to come with me there isn't any turning back, you'll need to leave your old life behind, you will need to take on a completely new identity, everyone you know will think you're dead. It is a precaution that must be taken though because the monster's you're hunting are all hunters… if it's possible to find your friends and family they will. We need to make you a different person."

"I have no family. I was an only child, my parents died in a car accident and my wife was killed last night."

"Your aunt and uncle are in danger if we don't change your name, as well as any friends you've had… whether they were close or not."

"Vampires from what we've seen are primal beings, they are hunters, they enjoy the thrill of the hunt. If you choose to join us we will need to perform plastic surgery on your face, change your hair color, and write you a new history of who you are." I nodded.

"And more than that you need to live that history. You need to know your lost wife's name is Katrina, not Ashley. You need to sell it with everything you know. You need to convince every person and vampire you've ever met that you will be someone you are not." I nodded.

"And you will never get credit for all the work you'll do, all the hundreds, perhaps thousands of lives you'll save. You'll never get to enjoy the life you're fighting to save. " I nodded.

"Maham, I'm twenty seven, it's not too old for most professions but in this line of work I'm losing my edge."

"Experience and knowledge will replace the millisecond you might lose, but yes, you will succumb to age, that is why aside from leading the team, you will also teach new recruits what you've learned."

"I'm in."

"You must protect your new identity with all the fervor you did your old identity." I nodded understanding.

"Your new Alias is Jack Elzam."

"You will never report to me giving your new alias. Your rank is unnecessary but it is Commander, and you will report as Ironman." I nodded.

"Yes Maham."

"Who are you?" She asked crossing her arms.

"My name is Jack Elzam, I am Ironman."

**Embry's POV**

Back in Minnesota and it's all returned to the monotony of day to day. My refreshing time at La Push seems like a distant memory.

"_Refreshing? So that's what you call it now…"_

_ "Jacob?"_

_ "I heard a certain someone was well… quenching your thirst."_

_ "Did you just try to make a sexual reference from refreshing?"_

_ "Well you didn't give me much to go off of."_

_ "Sorry I'm not on my game."_

_ "You should be."_

_ "So how did you hear about the Dena?" I asked Jacob_

_ "The inter-web"_

_ "Really?"_

_ "No course not, Seth told me jail bait was all over you." _It would never work between us. There was just too many things going against us. I didn't know why but I couldn't do it. Something didn't feel right. I felt like I was cheating on Leah. I didn't know why but I couldn't let myself do it. It felt like I should still be going out with her. Something felt wrong.

_"She left you, remember? You have all the right to hook up with anyone you please."_

_ "I know… but it feels wrong."_

_ "I know it's painful having someone, and them being your everything and then a vampire swoops in and steals her away… believe me, I know EXACTLY how that feels." _I laughed, there weren't many people in the world who could say "I'm a werewolf and I lost my girl to a vampire" but if there was one other one, it was Jacob.

_"So what did you do to push you over the edge, anything to get revenge?"_

_ "I thought about totaling Edwards car." _It wasn't the same for me, I wasn't the motor head Jacob was.

_"What are you going to do?"_

_ "I don't know… Something… anything to get my mind moving again." _I phased out of form and started and changed. I changed in to some jeans and a thin hooded sweatshirt. Truth was I needed to feel, feel anything.

"It's going to be cold out, it is winter after all… at least throw on your coat." Alice said appearing next to me. I sighed and grabbed my trench coat throwing it over my thin hooded sweatshirt. I pulled my hood deep over my head so no one could see my eyes, for more of a reason of believing I might end up crying later than anything else. I made my out to the garage and got my bike. I didn't care if it was out of season. My coat covered most of my body which was a plus. I opened the garage door. _I just need something worth fighting for._ I leaned back in to a wheelie and ripped out of the driveway.

I drove on the freeway, came back to town and even on a Sunday night I found the downtown of St. Cloud busy. I took in the atmosphere and the smell of the alcohol in. I cleared my head and stopped my bike parking it and taking the keys with me. I dug my hands in to my pockets and went for a walk through the part of town I hadn't taken in yet. The reason why I hadn't is because I'm not twenty one here yet. I tuned out the noise in my head took in all the sounds around me.

"Get away from me!" I heard in the distance.

"What's wrong? We both know you want me."

"No!" I sprinted towards the noise to see in horror a young woman being held by one guy, and another one holding a knife. I ran to them as fast as I could, probably faster than I should have. I grabbed at the knife wielding mans arm and shouldered him in to a brick building. He fell quickly and I took a weak swing at the guy holding her he went down easily as well. I smelt the alcohol on their breath I pulled the girl away and told her to run.

"Go, I'll make sure you're not followed." She thanked me quickly and ran. It looked like their sober cab showed up he had a gun in his hand.

"Dude… we got to get out of here!" one of the two I had beat up got up and grabbed the gun. He was less than five feet away, there was no way I could get away. He pulled the trigger, I don't know how many times, but I felt a hot sensation ripping through my lower abdomen.

"Shit! Come on guys! We gotta get the hell out of here." The two jumped in to the car and sped off with their driver. I blinked and made sure my hood was still up so no one could see me, then I staggered slowly in to the alley way gritting my teeth in pain, then the pain dulled slightly. I fell to my knees first then turned to my side and fell rolling on to my back.

It was the most amazing feeling. It was like nothing I'd ever experienced before. Granted it had its negative points but it was different, it was so surreal. I looked up at the darkened sky, I didn't move I simply stayed put and enjoying the moment. It might be sick to other people, painful to most but to me it was a unique experience. Most people didn't get the chance to remember it, but I will. I'll take in every sense every feeling every smell of this event, remember it. Most people wouldn't enjoy this, but right now I was. I was taking in the musty smell of stale beer around me, the flickering light of the street lamp past my head, the scenery. How often did I really get a chance to take in everything? All the time I'd rushed through life not stopping to notice the way full cardboard boxes folded under the weight of each other. The way the trash smelt, yes that was beyond disgusting but I took it in as I heard the driving by of cars. I heard people walking by, and then a gasp.

"Holy shit!" I assumed they must have been referring to me, as I lie on the ground in a dark abandoned alley.

"Dude, are you alive?" They were breaking my train of thought, my experience. I didn't need their help. I couldn't see the person who was talking.

"Alex, call 911!" I heard the sound of a phone flipping. _No, that can't happen, the hospital asks questions, I don't want Carlisle to see me this way either_

"Don't Call, I'll be fine." I said finally responding to them with a grumble. He walked closer to me examining me, I put my arm causally over my stomach to hide what he was looking for.

"I'm just laying here, taking it all in, leave me alone." He seemed confused standing over me as if he didn't know if he should laugh, help me up, or walk away. I personally would have preferred the third. He hadn't moved and now his friend had joined him.

"Are you alright?" _I am carrying on a normal conversation with you of course I'm alright, this won't stop me but I might as well get up, he ruined it for me anyway. _I didn't stand up quickly but I didn't take my time either. I wanted to convince these guys I was fine and neither would do the trick. I got up with my arm around my front so the guy couldn't see my stomach. I had forgotten there was a guy behind me.

"Holy shit you've been shot! You're bleeding!" I rolled my eyes. I'd stopped bleeding before they came.

"No I'm not, leave me alone." I said harshly. I wanted to make my point clear, that was _'get the heck out of my way before I hurt you.'_

"I'm calling the hospital." The first said flipping out his phone. _Shit, you need to stop him._ I delicately grabbed the phone out of his hand, making sure not to break it as I palmed it.

"What the hell dude, I'm trying to save your life!" the one who I took the phone from yelled. I laughed coldly.

"Do I really look like I need your help?" I asked glaring at him. he finally looked afraid of me. his friend flipped his phone out.

"You don't want to make a call, I'll give your friend his phone back once he promises he won't call, and believe me… I'll know if you call." I didn't know how the person behind me knew I was bleeding. The trench coat I was wearing should have covered my back. He shouldn't have seen anything from behind me.

"I swear I won't call anyone." I tossed his phone in his direction before pushing past his friend and around the corner. I made my way down another alley then to another.

Once I was sure they weren't following me anymore I made it to my bike and headed home. I'd been shot to night, three times in fact, but that wasn't going to stop me from doing what I wanted to, on the contrary, it'd propel me forward to do this again.

**Ohh! Yep it's the first chapter I couldn't write until now! I know I'm so mysterious and thought provoking! Heh, yeah… well I hope you enjoyed the chapter please remember knucks, high fives, rolls of twenty dollar bills and reviews. Next chapter; Single's awareness day. Catch you on the flip side**


	8. Singles Awareness Day

**Disclaimer: On this auspicious day I'm not Stephenie Meyer (not that I ever am, I am not)**

**Disclaimer Deuce: Happy Singles awareness day, if it isn't singles awareness day when you're reading this… well then hop to it and get reading**

**Mike's POV**

I listened to the phone ring and sighed. It was the same small sigh of regret. I knew it wasn't for me. I don't know why I even hoped. I got up to get it but my mom got it in the other room. Today was rough of me. I was so happy to have my family. My three brothers and sister were the best friends I never had, and my parents were tough on me but always there for me. It was days like these I appreciated how much they meant to me. Days like this were hard. I loved my family, but today was harder without something more. No it wasn't that. It was hard tell myself the obvious truth sitting in front of me. Emmett was Rosalie's boyfriend. I was stupid to think anything else could ever happen.

"Mike… the phone is for you." My hopes lifted. I made my way over to the phone.

"Hello?" I asked hopefully.

"Hey Mike, its Embry… I was wondering if you wanted to come over tonight, I've got nothing to do tonight and well… let's face it… it sucks being alone on today." I masked my disappointment in it not being Rosalie but I was more than happy to actually do something tonight.

"On this auspicious 'Single's awareness day?' of course I'd love to come over, let me check with my mom quick." I turned to my mom asking if I could go over to the Cullen's house and she immediately said I could. I smiled, My parents were strict but they trusted me too.

"I'll come pick you up." Embry said causally.

"You've got your driver's license already?" I asked.

"Ah… yeah I turned 16 in November." He said hesitating for a moment.

"Oh…kay…" I said. My mom turned back to me.

"If you're going over there you need to be back at 9 pm. It is a school night, and I don't want you to be riding on the icy roads with someone who just got his license." I turned back to the phone.

"Hey…my mom says someone else needs to drive."

"Ahh, yeah fine. Carlisle can come pick you up." He said.

"Great, I'll see you when I do."

**Ironman's POV**

"You want to use the money in your accounts to by a horse?" He asked me incredulously.

"Yeah I figured if I can't have any friends I might as well buy one." I snorted at him looking up from the book I was reading. Recuperation always frustrated me.

"And if I might ask, Officer Jack Elzam, why do you want a horse… a dog would be much less conspicuous."

"Call it my weakness if you will, but if you want to give me a dog as well I will take it."

"May I ask why?" the man asked me. This whole time he'd taught me, given me reading supplies on vampires, helped me study them, their strengths their weaknesses, their very nature, how to attempt to combat them, everything I'll need for Vampire killing 101 and he hadn't so much as given me a name and now he's asking why I want a horse?

"Yes you may ask, but as it is I won't tell you, we live outside of town it shouldn't be that hard to get." The truth was it was the one link to my past I didn't want to let go. I could let go of all my friends, and comrades but I wanted a horse. Solitude I could do but it was the one connection I wanted to keep and the fact that I kept a horse could hardly be tracked back to me. My father raced horses recreationally when I was a child. His champion horse was his pride and joy, his undefeated Trombe. Some people kept and took care of their cars… he had his pitch black Trombe. He taught me about him and the only people who Trombe ever let around him was myself my father, and my mother. When my parents died Trombe fell sick. I spent nights outside with him sleeping with him in the barn holding on to the memories I held with my father. The horse eventually recovered… but he never raced again. He was closer than any friend I had. Maybe that's why it was so easy for me to get up and leave them all after Trombe passed.

"Any other requests since you seem to think I'm your caterer?"

"Yeah, I'd like the horse to be a Black thoroughbred, preferential to racing if you can find it."

"And you expect me to get this for you because…"

"Because if you don't I will myself, and I believe you and your pals out there have been doing some work to make sure I only go where you want me to."

"I don't know what you're talking about Mr. Elzam."

"I spent enough time in special forces to notice a tail, or when people are watching me, if I didn't I wouldn't be worth your time." He laughed to himself.

"Alright… I'll make sure you have it…"

"Is there anything else you need?"

"Do you know the whereabouts of the Vampire who killed my wife?" I said impatiently. His stance didn't falter but his eyes shifted._ He knows… the bastard knows and he's going to lie to my face._

"No, but we do have people working on it."

"Ahh… I see." I controlled my annoyance.

"I assume my accounts which have been seized and moved around should have sufficient funds for my horse."

"What am I, your banker too?"

"Apparently so, since I haven't been able to move my money since taking on my new alias."

"Jack Elzam isn't your alias, it's who you are… I'll talk to my men about opening up accounts suited for your name that aren't traceable but there is only so much we can do and we've got plenty of other things to work on besides the whims of your desires." My anger flared up.

"I'd much rather do this myself but you're the ones who've been babying me forcing me not to do anything but study vampires. I had to fight to do my own grocery shopping." His face didn't shift.

"Have you narrowed down your search for soldiers for your special unit?" He said changing the subject.

"I have… mostly. It will take some more time and I'd like to personally scout my recruits… bring them in myself."

"I understand the importance of seeing your recruits face to face… but" He noticed a sheet of paper. With my handwriting on it and grabbed it.

"Lieutenant Nathan Schmidt… wait a second… as in "Psycho"-Nate Schmidt?" he said looking up from the sheet of paper.

"So you've heard of him?"

"They don't call him Psycho Nate for nothing…" he inferred. I smirked.

"I've met him, and I've read his full psych report, he's clean."

"He has an uncanny ability to get in to accidents, he's been hit been near areas that have been bombed and had more than one automobile hit him on active duty. He has an extremely high threshold for pain and because of it isn't very sympathetic to those around him."

"First off I'd say the fact that he's been through all that and is still in active duty speaks volumes for his resiliency, secondly he only appears to be unsympathetic. I've worked with him before… he doesn't like excuses, he doesn't make them for himself he doesn't expect them for others, however he's extremely loyal. I understand on paper he might look like a hair trigger, but he isn't."

"So he might not be unstable, but that doesn't make him the best choice."

"No… but the fact that he's an experienced knife fighter and martial artist helps… as well some unique abilities he has." I said making reference to the fact he was double jointed.

"If you say so." His eyes moved down to the sheet again.

"You have your choice of nearly any military personnel from any branch of the military, and you want a Special forces washout like Tim Briggs?" he asked.

"You should do your studying." I said calmly. I expected this kind of scrutiny of my choices.

"You mean 'Tiny' Tim Briggs?" He shrugged obviously not knowing much more than he read.

"Tim Briggs did flunk out of special forces, but you know why?" He shrugged at me.

"Because he's 6'4 and nearly three hundred pounds of muscle and would stick out in a crowd instead of blend in."

"Your point, Officer Elzam?"

"My point is because of his exemplary work as a marine he was given the chance to enter training for green Berets regardless. He passed with flying colors. He was only denied for the reasons previously stated. When we're hunting Vampires being less than six foot tall won't make a difference."

"Yeah I get it, he should be a Green Beret… but there are plenty of _actual_ green berets to choose from."

"None holding the record a high school wrestling record of 194 and 4. He also a background in boxing."

"I see you picked Jeremy White as a sniper… Why not Kale Jenson? Jenson has better marks."

"Better marks? You're talking about the two top snipers in the country… White has more experience with a suppressor and black ops." He looked at me waiting for my explanation.

"How many Vampires do you think you can kill with a sniper rifle? None if they hear it coming. Besides he has more experience with various other weapons."

"Guy Nakamura and Lisa Williams… neither of them have a military record."

"That's correct." I confirmed.

"You're creating a team where only half of the members have any military background?"

"Let me give you a little history about Nakamura. He is a an emigrant from Japan his family carries a long tradition of guardians, as part of his families tradition he trained in the ways of the Katana, not only that, but many other weapons and blades… From my research of vampires if we are to ever get some blades we'll need someone to teach us." He looked down at my sheet of paper and he groaned.

"It says here he's never shot a gun?"

"No he hasn't… but I've heard he's amazing with a Bow."

"You've got to be kidding me."

"Mr. Anonymous, you don't seem to understand that this isn't the typical enemy, we can't fight them atypically. I can always teach him how to shoot a gun, but he can teach me much more than that. Most people who are very good with weapons aren't the right age and mindset to be in a select military"

"And this last one Lisa Williams… I suppose she's some crack shot or something?"

"Nope…"

"Are you going to tell me what she is?"

"I don't know quite what to call. From the few reports I've been given it seems she's been groomed for this job since she was a teen. She is proficient with many blades, firearms, and fighting styles. The files I received were all classified. It appears who ever erased my history did the same for her… but she's been at this a bit longer than I have. I don't know what to believe. All I know is she comes very well recommended."

"So that's your team?"

"Yes… the tricky part is going to be recruitment… I need to sell them on something I can't tell them about that will forever change their careers and lives."

"I don't know I heard you basically jumped at the opportunity." He smirked at me.

"I was stupid and angry."

"Well so is Lisa, it's the other four you need to convince… She was the origin of this project, both her parents were killed by vampires in front of her eyes, I don't know if the vampire pitied her or didn't notice her but she's in, she's already on her way to the facility, she'll be here the same day your horse arrives." I nodded.

"Until then I guess it's just finding a way to convince the others."

"I suppose I can let you talk to her then." He said turning his attention back to me.

"We can?" I asked.

"Of course." He said dialing numbers in his phone.

"Yes, Lisa Williams, this is Him. Yes it's time for you to talk to your commanding officer." He handed me the phone.

"Hello?" she asked with a sound of resentment in her voice.

"Hello, my name is Jack Elzam."

"So you're supposed to be some impressive special forces super hero or something? You're supposed to lead _me_? I've been learning for this for over a decade, what have you been doing that long?"

"That isn't your business."

"I still don't understand why I'm not leading this team, you study vampires for a month and now you know everything?"

"I never claimed to know everything, in that regard I may need your help." I said calmly.

"_May_ need my help? What the hell do you know about fighting vampires."

"I don't know, how many have you killed?" I said calmly. I refused to let her get under my skin. Remaining calm best suited my desires.

"Well… I…"

"That's what I thought, if you have some personal issue with me you can feel free to settle it with me then."

"What? You don't have the balls to argue with me? Some leader you'll be!"

"I do not lack the self confidence to walk away from an attack at my manhood Besides, arguing with an angry person is a fool's errand."

"Coward."

"If you want a confrontation you can have it when you get there. Good day Ms. Williams." I said hanging up the phone. I shook off the confrontation and picked up my book again.

"I guess it's time I get back to this." I said to the man who was standing in the room with me.

**Mike's POV**

I don't know why I expected to see Rosalie here. She was off with Emmett. I felt a squeezing on my midsection. This was more than just jealousy. I felt betrayal. _Who was I to think she owed me anything? _The truth was I didn't. Embry was being gentle… He was walking around like he was in pain… but trying to hide it…_ why?_

"You know… I'm not complaining because we've had some fun already tonight but… Why did you invite me over? We've never really hung out before."

"Misery loves company." He said plainly.

"I'm not miserable." I tried to say straight faced.

"On this 'Single awareness day?' Of course you're miserable."

"And what about you? Huh?" I said reflecting his question back at him.

"What? Of course not, I'm not miserable."

"Hey Embry… denial ain't just a river in Egypt." I said quoting my brother. He smiled slightly.

"I guess I am… My ex did quite a number on me." He confessed.

"At least you have an ex. I just have unfulfilled hopes. Haven't you heard? 'it's better to have loved and lost than to never loved at all?'" I said. He started laughing.

"You know… Before I dated my ex I said the same thing. She told me I was wrong." He said laughing.

"I don't even know whose right anymore. I wouldn't trade my good memories away for anything… besides a chance to screw myself up again." He said honestly. I raised my can of Mountain dew up to him.

"To the mistakes of our lives we'd gladly make again." I said with a smirk. He hit his can of Dr. Pepper to my can.

"I'll drink to that." I gulped down the pop and reached for the Xbox 360 controller on the coffee table in front of me. I finished the pop and stopped dead. I didn't know where I should put it down. Everything was too clean in this house. I didn't want to disturb it. Embry must have saw the look on my face because he got up and grabbed my can and walked in to the other room with it. As he returned I started the loading screen again.

"Come on, there's still Nazi Zombies to kill." He smiled

"You're one to talk you're always the first one dead." He retorting.

"It's not my fault I'm a zombie magnet. It must be my better looks."

_"Why is no one caring about my lack of ammo?" _my character asked.

"Hey Mike, you're out of ammo." Embry goaded

"Yeah I caught that."

"Seven shots to kill a zombie? Come on what ever happened to double tap?" Embry asked.

"Double tap?" I asked

"Zombie killing rule two, double tap." I nodded unloading another clip in to a zombie.

"Ahuh… sure…"

"What, you've never seen Zombieland?"

"Nope…" I answered.

"Well you're missing out." I heard the door open and instinctively turned. I wish I hadn't. I got a glimpse of Emmett with his arm around Rosalie tightly. I felt my throat tighten up. Rosalie and my eyes met for a millisecond before I turned back to see my flesh being eaten by a zombie.

"Come on Mike! That was bad even for you!" He said looking at me. I tried to hide the horror and the pain ripping through me but I couldn't do it fast enough. Embry's eyes went to the door and saw the reason.

"Well thanks for inviting me over Embry… It was fun I'll get going." I said grabbing my jacket and heading towards the door.

"Carlisle isn't here, you can't leave yet."

"I'll walk." I said firmly.

"It's -20 below with wind chill"

"It's not that far."

"You're wearing jean shorts."

"I'll survive… it's just up the river a bit… it's frozen." I said explaining putting my shoes on as quickly as possible. Rosalie was in front of me.

"I'll give you a ride home." _No, no, no, no, no!_

"N-n-no th-thanks… I'll be fine… been here all my life, I'll manage. I did just fine before." I said ranting.

"No. I'll give you a ride home." Rosalie said blocking my way.

"Please… No…" I said almost begging I passed by them.

"I'll give you a snowmobile ride out to your farm, that's not illegal, is it?" Embry said behind me.

"No… let's go."

**Rosalie's POV**

_What the hell was that? What the heck was Embry thinking inviting him over without talking to me? He didn't even tell me, how was I supposed to know._ Embry came through the door after dropping off Mike.

"What the hell Embry! Why was Mike here?" I yelled.

"We were hanging out." He answered calmly.

"Why the hell were you hanging out?" I scowled.

"Obviously because there are too many Nazi Zombies. Why the hell do you think? I knew if today was rough for me it would be hard for him too. That and I wanted something else to think about besides the bullet hole in me." I said pointing the answer at Rosalie.

"You should have thought of that before you decided to be a hero. And you did this to get back at me?"

"No, actually the world DOESN'T revolve around you. Maybe I felt bad for him. He sits alone at lunch. Maybe I don't see him as an ego boost."

"It's not like that at all." I defended.

"If you don't believe me go see him tonight, I bet anything you ruined his night." I wanted to argue it but I couldn't. Whatever, _Whatever I'll see him for myself he's fine._

_Why the hell am I even going to Mike's house? Obvious, to prove Embry wrong. I have no reason to feel guilty. Then why do I?_ I bounded up to his window silently, there was an overhang right outside of the window. The light was still on in his room.

"I don't understand why you even talk to her. It's obvious she's just stringing you along." I heard his brother James say.

"I want to think it's different than that but you might be right." Mike said with a shaky voice.

"I hate her. She's such a jerk. I don't know why the hell she had to start this." James said angrily.

"She's not that bad…" Mike defended. I felt a sick feeling in my stomach. _After everything I've done to him emotionally he's still defending me. Please call me a bitch. Please say something horrible about me._

"Yes she is, you're just blinded by your attraction to her, she's screwing you up so badly you can't even see it." James said. _I can't take this anymore._ I leapt off the ledge and avoided the light making my way back to the river, and across towards my house. _I'm sorry Mike, I never meant it to be like this, why couldn't you just understand._

**Happy Singles Awareness Day. Wahoo guess who's not spending money on it? THIS GUY! So I hope you enjoyed the chapter, it's what I've got, I'm getting even more intrigued by this angle with Mike and Rosalie and of course with "Ironman" Jack Elzam, so I might update sooner rather than later, but don't hold me to it! In the words of a wise old song "Don't fence me in" Please leave reviews, high fives, rolls of twenty dollar bills, and knucks. Catch you on the flip side.**


	9. Call's Destiny

**Disclaimer: What does Hugh Jackmen, Ray Park, Liam Neeson, Jason Statham, Vin Diesel and I have in common? We aren't Stephenie Meyer**

**Disclaimer Deuce: Oh yeah, and their all bad asses.**

"**Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

I stared in to the mirror. _This is who I am now._ It wasn't that big of a change. I now had long blonde hair instead of short dark brown hair. I was clean shaven instead of scruffy, I was German before. I found it humorous that changing my entire life story didn't bug me, but when I looked in the mirror I found it difficult to look in to my own eyes. _It's not the hair._ I knew the real reason was because I found it hard to look myself in the eye knowing I couldn't do anything to protect or avenge my wife. I was promoted to leader of my squad because I always kept my cool and now I couldn't do that. _You watched your wife get murdered. _I didn't sleep well anymore. I was plagued by the same nightmare. Every night I watched helplessly as the same vampire killed my wife. His face was permanently burned in to my subconscious. I would make him pay. I would make them all pay.

**Embry's POV**

I lifted my shirt and examined the red area where not too long ago a piece of metal resided. _Why?_ _Why the hell do I do this to myself?_ I didn't know for sure. There was the adrenaline rush but there had to be some other reason. _Is there another reason?_ The reason I said was I needed to do something to feel alive, but it was something more than that. I felt guilty. I have all the power in the world. Power that would drive some mad, I can make my destiny and I can do anything I want, but I was given this power as a guardian. The last time I'd actually protected my tribe was so long ago. I've fought though. First the phasing bears, then the wolves of Minnesota. Neither were direct threats to La Push though.

_ Why haven't I stopped phasing then?_ Was I holding on to my body and powers when I should be giving them up? It's why I felt so guilty. Truthfully it was the main reason behind my stupid act of heroism. Where the Cullen's may not have a choice to lose their powers, it's a conscious decision for me.

_If I am to be a shifter should I not use the power for a purpose greater than me, even if it's just vigilante justice?_ The truth is I wasn't a doctor, I wasn't brilliant like the Cullen's, I was smart… but not brilliant. And I could be a doctor, I could volunteer without my ability to shift. No I needed to use my powers to help others, if not then there was no reason I deserved to hold on to them. Unlike Jacob I wasn't dating someone who never would die from old age._ Is my reason holding on laziness? Wanting to look good forever? What is wrong with me?_

**Rosalie's POV**

Ever since Valentine's Day Mike had been going out of his way to avoid me. I didn't blame him, but I wanted it to end. _What the hell am I supposed to say? _I struggled with what I should do. The facts of the matter were that I had no intention of leaving Emmett but I felt badly for leading Mike on. It angered me, I'd led on dozens of men on before and never felt guilty for it. _Why the hell is different?_ It was hard to admit but maybe for the first time I had to. _I like Mike Iverson…_ _Damn it._ This complicated things. I searched in the practice rooms but he wasn't there either. For not being a vampire the guy could be evasive when he wanted to be. He wasn't in any of his usual hiding places. I closed my eyes and listened more carefully. It was early in the morning so there wasn't as much to hear. All the sounds invaded my ear canal at once, first I singled out the sound of footsteps and pushed it back in to my subconscious, next the sound of someone working on the wheel in the Clay class, then the sound of locker combinations spinning, doors slamming, conversations, until finally I heard Mike's breathing. It might sound odd but I recognized his breathing pattern when he concentrated on something. It was slowed down and deliberate as if he was trying to be extremely careful.

"Mike, how's your piece?"

"Well I'm doing what I can but it's not as nice as yours."

"Well thanks but yours is good as well." _What the hell are they talking about?_

"Well when I look at your set… I mean wow it just looks amazing." A spark of jealousy struck me._ Mike hasn't even said that I'm hot and now he's talking up a girl like that! Where the hell did he get that confidence?_

"Hey, yours doesn't look too bad either. "

"Yeah right." Mike said.

"No seriously, that's one of the best I've seen from a guy…" _That skank!_ I thought making my way towards the conversation.

"That's it Mike… Nice and soft hands…" She said quietly. Who the hell was this? I rushed up the stairs towards the sound and slipped in to the room silently.

"What the hell?" I said before even seeing what was going on in the room. Mike looked up from his wheel immediately and his hands slipped. Mike looked down.

"What? No! my pot!" Mike started getting up and I was in front of him. I replayed the conversation in my head and tried to hide behind some of the clay clothes. _There was nothing sexual about it._

"So what was that about?" Mike said angrily at me as he cleaned his wheel off and prepped some more clay for spinning.

"Well… I've been looking for you but you're never where you usually are." Mike looked around awkwardly then his focus turned to the girl on his left.

"Clay II is taking a lot of time." I couldn't believe that was his excuse for being invisible, I mean I didn't even see him at lunch anymore.

"What about lunch?" I asked pointedly

"My Lunch got moved to Lunch A for a class, I'm not in B anymore. " I turned my attention to the woman next to him. _Who the hell is this girl? Why is he so damn comfortable with her? He's smiling. What the hell?_ Mike must have noticed because he started stumbling over his words a little.

"Uhh, This is Rina. She's a friend of mine."

"Oh really? Why haven't I seen her around here before?" Rina chuckled.

"I'm a Junior." She said plainly.

"So how do you know each other." I asked to avoid the awkward moment I knew was on it's way.

"Oh we met in Marching band."

"Oh, Mike never told me he used to be in a marching band." I said causally. Rina started giggling.

"What? What is it?" I said confused and slightly angry.

"Umm… I didn't used to be in the marching band… I'm still in it… I'm going on my fourth year… Winter Drumline season." I shrugged.

"Okay… I guess it's not a huge deal."

"Not a huge deal? Try eight and a half hour practices every Sunday, sometimes sixteen hours of practice in a weekend. Shows every weekend and basically shooting your social calendar for all weekends from mid January to March." I blinked. _All that and just didn't tell me?_

"How did this never come up before?" Mike shrugged.

"Well I need to get to my homework… I'll see you Saturday." I nodded.

"See you then Rina." She left the room and he watched her leave still with a huge smile on his face. His attention turned to me and his smile almost immediately evaporated in to I neutral look then a frown.

"So… Rina… How long have you liked her." He shrugged focusing on his pot.

"I've known her for three years but for about two now… I guess."

"Why don't you ask her out?" I asked dreading the answer.

"You know… the problem is she doesn't have feelings for me. It's hard to accept because she makes me feel happy. Even if we're not dating she's possibly the nicest girl I've ever met and she's not conceded and isn't trying to make me serve her, she's not making me do anything and she wants to spend time with me. She still is my friend even though I put her through the ringer of liking her."

"What do you mean?" I asked honestly.

"I mean we've gotten really close and I told her that I liked her. Instead of forcing me away and ignoring me she stays my friend. It doesn't become awkward for me but I can only assume it is for her but she's still my friend."

"How do you do that?"

"Well it's hard, but when she's one of the best people you've ever met you work around it." _Damn this guy fell hard. Is there any truth to what he's saying?_ I couldn't possibly be that nice, even if I wanted to. A smile crept in to the corner of his mouth then disappeared just as fast as it came.

"What do you want?" He said coldly. _I know he's mad about Emmett but I've never known him to be mean._

"I don't know I just wanted to talk I guess." I said honestly.

"Well can we do this another time, I'm kind of focused on my project. _I can't believe he's trying to get rid of me! _

"Listen I understand you're in a bad mood but-" Mike slammed his foot on the concrete floor.

"But what? I understand you're in a bad mood but I was just leading you on? I understand you're in a bad mood but I like flirting with another guy when I have a boyfriend? I understand you're in a bad mood I thought it'd be fun to make a complete idiot out of you? What? What is it Rosalie?"

"I… Well…" said trying to find the right words.

"That's what I thought."

"**Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

I stared deep in to my horses eyes and calmly walked towards him.

"I'm sorry Sir, but this horse is trouble… he doesn't let anyone near him. He's bred to be a champion race horse but he's unstable and hurt his owner." I didn't let him sway me. I stared in to his deep in to his strong eyes. I slowly lifted my hands up palm up and made my way to him until there was less than a foot between us. I lifted my hands and ran my fingers slowly through his mane. He pushed forward and his head past mine until his head was past mine. I naturally wrapped my arms around him hugging him softly. _Trombe._

I spent my time with Trombe. It wasn't until then I realized I hadn't hugged anyone since my wife's death. I left any friends I had behind and now Trombe was my only friend. _What a Pathetic state of affairs._ I heard a car pull up in the distance. Lisa Williams was here. I knew she wouldn't be my friend either. I didn't leave Trombe. I simply kept petting him knowing she'd make her way out to me eventually.

"You!" I assumed the irate woman was talking to me but I didn't turn around.

"Hey, Aryan. What, too good to acknowledge me?"

"Arguing with some who is mad is pointless." I said still not facing her. I continued to comb through Trombe's hair.

"So that's how you're going to be?"

"Calm, collected and rational in the face of irrational anger? Yes." I said before finally turning around. She had brunette hair that stopped just above her shoulders, and wore an angry look that did little to detract from her overall look. I sighed.

"I didn't choose you to be part of my group. The higher ups who chose me, chose you. Unlike the other four members of my squad YOU have something to prove and you know it. So if you're done here I'd like to go back to what I was doing and you can go have an emotional outburst on someone who cares." I felt her fingers wrap around my shoulder and pull. I immediately realized what was going on and lifted my hands as I spun my left hand crossed my body pushing her punching arm away. With my left arm I grabbed her wrist turning it outward and struck her shoulder with my palm. Her footing slipped slightly and I saw what was behind her as she started to fall. I threw my arm out and caught her arm just past her elbow before she landed.

"What the hell, is this some kind of flaunted superiority?" Lisa grumbled not pulling herself up.

"No… I just saw a pile of horse shit under you when you were falling… I can let go if you'd like." I pulled her up and she stepped away from me quickly as possible.

"Cute…" she said.

"Your approval isn't needed, now if you'll excuse me I need to spend some precious moments with someone who appreciates my time."

"Oh and who is that?" she asked condescendingly.

"Trombe, obviously." I said patting my horse on his neck. She scoffed.

"Go get settled in to your room I'll be in a couple hours." She finally nodded and went in. I sighed. _This isn't going to get any easier._

**Embry's POV**

I walked the slushy streets in the warm winter night. The same stench of beer hung heavily in the air. I slid my hands in to the pockets of my deep trench coat. My hood was up and hanging well over most of my face, I couldn't see straight ahead of me but I didn't need to. I listened carefully with my head down, just following my feet to wherever they would lead. I ended up in front of "The Red Carpet" then "The Dugout" before drifting through walkways to "Rumrunners" but nothing was going on. I shrugged. It WAS Minnesota, maybe this whole "Minnesota Nice" thing was for real. I heard a scream from a couple streets down. I started sprinting down the alley then wall ran up the alley walls clearing a fence in the way. I saw the woman let go of the purse.

"Just take the purse!" She said.

"Ahh no we're just starting to have fun baby. Don't act like you don't want it." I charged in at the three men.

"Holy shit look at that guy." One said and they started running. I chased around the corner, there was no way in hell they could get away from me. I caught up to the last one and got a hold of his shoulder throwing him in to the side of the brick building. I knew he was out so I didn't even look. I turned the corner and heard a gun go off. In that split second I knew I'd made a mistake I felt the bullet pierce my flesh of my shoulder and stop. It didn't go through it lodged itself in my shoulder. My attention returned to the shooter. I charged him and checked him into the building next to us. _Wasn't there three people?_ I thought a moment before I felt a blunt object hit the side of my face. My vision blurred. I lost my balance then fell forward, blacking out.

_"Blaze! Get some disinfectant to clean his wound!" _ _I heard _muffled. She_ sounds funny… she's not from around here…_

_ "Where am I going to find that here?"_

_ "Just get a drink from the bar."_

_ "Get a light too! I can't even see where the bullet went it's so dark here."_

_ "Anything else?"_

_ "Yeah I need a knife or something to cut him to dig out the bullet, please Blaze, fast!" why can't I open my eyes? _I tried to force my eyes open and my consciousness faded again.

_I heard a low growling sound._

_ "We need to get out of here D!"_

_ "We can't take him with us!" "D" said._

_ "Come on we need to get out of here!" "Blaze said"_

_ "I never even got to see his face…" "D said"_

I felt cold hands on my body and then lifting.

"You just can't stay out of trouble can you." Jasper said in frustration and relief. I groaned in response but at least I could see spots now, my vision was coming back. I noticed something on the ground as my vision cleared up. With Jasper's support I bent down and picked it up. _Her wallet?_

**Thanks for reading. I've made some goals for myself and one of them is to finish this story or this part of it by July or during it. To achieve that I'm going to try and update once a week, it might be this story it might be the other one but I'm trying to do one chapter a week like I used to… man I've really let myself go :-D what you, the reader can do to help me achieve my epic goal is review, reviewing giving me opinions and ideas motivate me to write probably more than you know. So thanks for reading, remember reviews, high fives, knucks, and twenty dollar bills. Catch you on the flipside, Fireproof**


	10. Faith, Love, and Happiness

**Disclaimer: TFK All the way, is not Stephenie Meyer, Okay?  
**

**Disclaimer Deuce: "Faith, Love, and Happiness is the name of the song, Phenomenon is the name of the CD"**

"**Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

"I practice with live blades, no reason I should be sloppy when I'm practicing."

"It's a bad idea, you can get wooden blades that work just as well and are much less likely to cut you up."

"Whatever, some of us don't make mistakes." I breathed heavily but hid it.

"Everyone makes mistakes, but it's important to limit them."

"That's a stiff answer, even for you, so why the hell don't you give a real one?"

"Everyone makes mistakes, no one can see the future, and all you can do in the end is look back at the mistakes you've made, the people you've lost because of your lack of foresight. That's the curse of the survivor." I said seriously.

"Sounds like you've got some history."

"Dwelling on the past is useless, all we can do now is make a better future." I said coldly.

"You sound snippy." She sneered at me.

"I didn't bring you along for you commentary, if you want to be part of my team you'll need to meet the rest of it." I stepped in to the meeting hall.

"Lieutenant Nathan Schmidt!" I called loudly. A man stood up turning to me acknowledging me.

"No salute?"

"How do I know you outrank me?" He asserted. I smirked.

"So you really want Mr. Short stack full of piss and vinegar on our team." Lieutenant Schmidt narrowed his eyes at Lisa Williams.

"Lieutenant Schmidt you play with knives all the time, do you use live blades or fake ones for practice?"

"Fake ones, using live ones is just stupid." He said plainly. He looked at Lisa Williams who looked very offended.

"Sorry, but the fact that you're pretty doesn't make using live blades for practice any less stupid." Lieutenant Schmidt said with a shrug. Williams was about to sneer back but I stopped her.

"Both of you need to stop… now."

"What makes you believe that I'd join your task force, I don't even know your name."

"For now… just call me Mr. Green."

**Embry's POV**

She'd done a good job on me, got the bullet out and cleaned the wound before Jasper scared her off. _But who was she?_ I'd been a week since the incident and I'd sworn off vigilante work. I promised I wouldn't do it again but I wanted to know who this woman was. Her wallet didn't give much away, but Jasper was using his contacts to look in to it.

"Whoever she is, she's very good at staying under the radar, no social networking sites of any kind." Jasper said next to me as if reading my mind.

"But I do have an E-mail address, nothing found on an address or name." I made my way to the computer and opened up my E-mail. I hadn't checked it an at least two weeks. _90 messages… really?_ I opened a new E-mail

"Dear Savior." _Nope that sounds wrong._

"Dear Person." _That's no better. What about using the E-mail address? No, then it looks like Junk mail._

"Dear Someone,  
I found your wallet in the alleyway in downtown, by The Red Carpet. It had no ID in it so I didn't know where to send it. If you could send me an address to send it to I could send it to you Thanks for your time."_ Should I tell her she saved my life? No there's no need or reason just going to mail this back and be done with it._

**Mike's POV**

I stared out of the window with my head leaning on the glass, the constant rumble of the glass against my forehead brought some comfort. It had been a very long weekend.

_The weekend started fine. Friday night I spent time with my younger brother playing some video games, then Saturday morning we had practice, nine to three, jumped on a bus after loading everything by four, got to the Drumline show at six, watched a couple shows, prepped for performance, performed at eight, packed up by ten. _

_ As usual myself, Brian, and James my brother were the only people really working on it. Everyone else was complaining and tired. Apparently we need to carry everyone else's work load when they get tired. After we finally got packed up we loaded the bus again and drove to Buffalo Lake for a sleep in the gym and play the next day's show. _

_ We didn't get there till midnight and once we did we needed to unload all the instruments. No surprise James, Brian, and I were the only ones unloading because people were 'tired and cold' That's nice, because it's impossible that any of us are tired by now. And as for cold if you don't like the cold stop complaining, you live in Minnesota, live with it or wuss out and move south. It wasn't that cold anyway, it was 10 degrees above zero, that's nothing, heck I was even wearing shorts._

_ By 12:30 once we finally have unloaded everything we need to have a Drumline meeting about the rest of the night and Sunday. What the heck can't wait until the morning? Lights out at one A.M. But since some of us were actually working we still haven't had time to unpack our stuff so we barely get unpacked and our air mattresses pumped by one and now we need to get ready for bed in the dark. And I never sleep well on air mattresses anyway. Maybe I got four hours of sleep. Oh yeah and for those of us going to Mass in the morning we need to get up at seven to go to mass, everyone else gets to sleep in till nine. Two of the people who did go to mass were once again, James and I._

_ So we come back from Mass and everyone looks at us like "Why the hell weren't you here?" I'm sorry That we got up two hours earlier than you and came to practice a half hour late. So we practice, AGAIN for another three hours, then the show. By now everyone is getting on everyone's nerves and I stopped caring what I said. Made a girl cry. Bossy girl deserved it, then one of our friends told me I had to apologize. By now I'd been so angry I just laughed at them and walked away. Then finally once the end was in sight a blizzard hit. Every 15 minutes now we've needed to stop to fix the windshield wiper._

"So… Whose this Rosalie chick?" Rina asked next to me. I turned to her not completely focused.

"Huh?" I asked. She was in the seat across from me. I asked playing with the ugly gray seat in front of me.

"I think that Rosalie girl likes you." Rina said with a big smile. I tried not to smile, I really did, but I couldn't resist it when I saw her smile. I didn't smile often so I definitely noticed it.

"Nah, she's got a boyfriend, she doesn't like me." I said dismissing her idea.

"Just because she's got a boyfriend doesn't mean she's not interested." _Really? If I had a girlfriend I wouldn't be checking anyone out… I'd just be happy to be with her. I guess that's just me._

"She seemed really jealous of how we were having fun." I shook my head.

"No… I don't understand her at all."

"That's okay because she's a girl, and girls are confusing." Rina said with another smile.

"No kidding." I said shaking my head. We stopped again to fix the windshield wiper.

"Hey Rina?"

"Yeah Mike?"

"Umm I'm sorry for how I was this weekend… this 'Drumline weekends' tend to wear me down."

"Why are you apologizing to me?" Rina asked. _Because you're the only person in this Drumline whose opinion of me I care about._

"No reason… I just know I was pretty short with people this weekend." _The truth was every week I disliked my friends a bit more. It was only Rina that didn't anger me. Her and James anyway, But James wasn't my friend, he was my brother. That meant so much more to me than any friendship could. _

"What are you thinking about?" Rina asked.

"Oh… Nothing… just thinking."

"Well stop. It' looks like it hurts." She said. I smiled again. _Why can't I be enough for her?_ _What truly dictates feelings? Is it something I could change? Fix? Become? _I wished it was that easy, but it wasn't. Sometimes you could fall for a girl hard, see that she's everything you could want, and then realize you're not the person she wants. I know I'm making a perfect statue where a human stands but I couldn't help it. I forced myself not to think about it.

I'd had crushes before but never like this. One was dating my friend at the time; rather he asked her out about an hour before I was going to… That didn't work out too well. And then there's the next one who didn't have feelings for me, and another same result. All of those didn't bother me because I was told no and I moved on. It was what I had to do. It was different with her, my feelings didn't fade, they just went in to hiding, only to be reignited when I spent time with her. I was once foolish enough to believe these feelings were gone. I was wrong. These feelings would never disappear. They would just simmer like the calm before the storm.

**Embry's POV**

I opened up my e-mail and saw a message.

"Dear Someone,  
How do I know you are who you say you are? I don't tend to  
trust people I don't know, especially from the internet. If you  
are who you say you are, please prove it. Tell me what I had  
in my wallet. I don't give out my address to strangers." _How very Sunday morning cartoon of you. _I thought smiling before typing my own message back.

"Dear Someone,  
You've got 23 dollars and 9 cents. You have a card for gold's  
gym, You have a library card, as well. You have a video  
rental card for Reelmovies and a hair clip. Do I pass your  
test?"

"**Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

"Really? You gave me Mr. Green as your name? How long did you think I'd believe you.

"About as long as it'd take you to understand the reference." I said offhandedly.

"You wanted a name, I gave you one. It just needed to be enough until you agreed to join our squad."

"I see… Sorry that I'm skeptical but I've never seen one of these vampires before… and you say they don't burst in to flames in direct sunlight? That's not very vampiric of them."

"There is footage of vampires… But you will need to sign papers confirming you joining of our cause before you can see them, but by now you can no longer walk away with the knowledge you have."

"So what is your name then?" Nate asked.

"My name is Jack Elzam. Now let's get to work."

"So what do we need to trap and capture vampires?" Nate asked. I smiled at his enthusiasm. He was about to partake on the most grueling training in his life, all to fight something that would always be an uphill battle, all of our training just to have a dim chance of keeping up with this monsters.

"From the studies we have learned that they react to high voltage electricity."

"How high?" Schmidt asked.

"High enough to stop a charging bull… This power must be constantly on the vampire even a second of reprieve from the electric shock and they can escape."

"Where are you going to get something like that?"

"We've got people working on it, don't worry about it… Right now we need to finish assembling our team."

"Team? There's more than three of us?" He asked. I smiled.

"Yes… there's more." Lisa stepped in to the room and I noticed she didn't seem as angry as before. She still wore a little resentment on her face towards me but it wasn't hostile anger as before. _One more hair trigger, and then it gets easier._ I thought about recruiting the next person. If I thought Lisa Williams and Lieutenant Nate Schmidt didn't get along, I KNEW Lieutenant Nate Schmidt and "Tiny" Tim Briggs wouldn't get along. I gave it one hour before they were fighting each other. Nate had a slight tendency to prove himself to people bigger than him, proving that he was just as capable as someone bigger than him, and Briggs wouldn't take kindly to someone who was half his size who openly taunted him. I didn't yet know how it'd play out, but it was something I needed to keep an eye on.

**Embry's POV**

I yawned loudly getting ready for bed. _Might as well check my e-mail one last time before I go to bed._ I signed in and noticed I had two messages. I opened the inbox and saw an ad for stellar handbags from Macy's. _That's junk. _And one E-mail from Someone…

"Dear Someone,  
Sorry about the questions. And not believing you, I've got quite a history.  
Thank you for contacting me but my brothers warned me about giving  
out addresses, I can't give you mine, not until we've talked more. I'm  
sorry if I sound paranoid but it's a long story. I want to trust you though  
My name is Destiny, but my friends all call me D." I smiled. At least she was started to trust me. _What the hell, I have nothing better to do._

"Dear D,  
The questions weren't that bad. Being suspicious isn't bad, there are  
many creeps in this world. It's a good thing you have brothers watching  
out for you. It's good to have a caring family. I guess I understand  
about the address. No you don't sound paranoid, you sound cautious.  
I hope you will trust me as well. My name is Embry, but all my friends  
call me… Embry."

Mike's POV

I threw my head against the pillow after a long weekend. I turned my CD player to random on Thousand Foot Krutch's "Phenomenon" I heard the fast drum and guitar rift play and closed my eyes fading in to the loud rock that filled the room.

"Everyone is up in my face,  
need to get out of this place,  
it's hard to see with you in front of my face,  
just another perfect day,  
acting like they wanna talk to me,  
so fake yet so friendly.  
My eyes can see even the back of me,  
won't you just let me be?"

Cause everyone is falling away,  
feel like they're stolen from me,  
wish everything didn't happen to me,  
all I want is faith, love and happiness.  
Everytime one runs away  
another one's returning,  
I wish everyone could just see your face.  
Faith, love, and happiness.

It seems everyone is up in my space,  
like it's the American way,  
I run in case somebody takes  
my place, just another change of pace.  
I know you think you know a lot about me,  
but so many wanna doubt me.  
My eyes can even see the back of me,  
won't you just let me be.

Cause everyone is falling away,  
feel like they're stolen from me,  
wish everything didn't happen to me,  
all I want is faith, love, and happiness.  
Every time one runs away another one's returning,  
I wish everyone could just see your face.  
Faith, love, and happiness.

Every which way I turn I've got the option of a million choices,  
every single word I say is judged by a million critics.  
Every which way you turn you hear the sound of a million voices.  
Every single move you make is torn by a million cynics.  
When will we all see the light of day?  
I don't know.

Cause everyone is falling away,  
feel like they're stolen from me,  
wish everything didn't happen to me,  
all I want is faith, love, and happiness.  
Every time one runs away another one's returning,  
I wish everyone could just see your face.  
Faith, love, and happiness."

**This is a shorter chapter because I simply ran out of things to write in this chapter, but fear not my loyal reviewers (and the rest of you reading, don't think I don't see you back there) because I still have plenty ideas. My goal is to update once a week, by Friday, this week I'm one day ahead, maybe I'll start writing early for next week. As always remember to give knucks, high fives, rolls of twenty dollar bills, and reviews. Catch you on the flip side, Fireproof **


	11. Tanya

**Disclaimer: So yeah, still not Stephenie Meyer.**

**Disclaimer Deuce: You know I should really get back in to having more music in my stories I was going to do that this chapter but I didn't really get the full song in and I was done before I put a different one in, oh well.**

**Embry's POV**

"But in the meantime there are those who wanna  
Talk this and that  
So I suppose it gets to a point  
Feelings gotta get hurt  
And get dirty with the people spreading the dirt" _I thought to myself as I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. _I rolled out of bed covers still clinging to me until l landed on my hands and feet my face inches from the floor. I pushed hard on my hands propelling myself up to my feet. I tiredly stumbled down stairs to the computer. It was habit now, for a couple weeks I'd gotten E-mails from D, three to four times a day.

We'd become close friends, and now we e-mailed almost constantly at night, learning this and that about each other. The more I got to know her the more I feared the obvious conclusion… I was beginning to develop feelings for a girl I've never even seen. The unfortunate part of this conclusion was it was getting harder and harder to hide my lies. I wanted to tell her the truth.

"_Hey D, by the way I'm a giant transforming wolf? What? No not like transformers… I mean I change more like a werewolf. What? No of course I'm not a werewolf! No I won't kill anyone; I've never killed anyone before… well besides vampires. Wait, yeah, there are vampires out there. Oh yeah I know some vampires, I live with some. Oh No of course I still want you to come up, they won't kill you." _

Maybe there was a good reason why telling an outsider was forbidden. I stumbled when I accidently told her I was a sophomore AND my age. I was twenty. Luckily that put me at a sophomore in college, when I told her a sophomore she asked what College I was going to. Since I was reading this in e-mail she couldn't see my horror. I told her the only place I could think of "SCSU" I said for the abbreviation of the Local college. She was confused telling me she also went there… but had no clue why I lived in Minnesota. She went to "SCSU… South Carolina State University. I went to St. Cloud State University"

That had been my worst slip up but there had been others. I'd mentioned Leah a couple times… that was never pretty. I tried not to but Leah was my ONLY experience in dating… The first girl I kissed was Leah… The first boy she kissed was when she was 14. She was three years older than me. In this battlefield of relationships I was definitely losing. My problem is whenever we talked about relationship experience Leah was all I COULD talk about… She hated it but I couldn't do any differently.

More than anything what made this special is she had no idea what I looked like. She was attracted to me. Before I started phasing no one was attracted to me, and now women finally found my other qualities endearing. _Bullshit._ Women can be as two dimensional as the lowest scum of a guy. She was different. I wanted to share my identity with her. I wanted her to know me better but at nearly turn she resisted. I knew what it meant, her ex had done an awful lot more to her then she'd ever say.

It was nearly scary how close we'd gotten over time. I treated her as a close confidant but at the same time I couldn't get rid of the gnawing feeling that I should tell her more. Every time I opened an e-mail I couldn't wait to see what she had to tell me. I looked in my inbox seeing another message from her.

"_Hey there hot stuff  
Daamn I want to meet you. I jus get hot thinking about it.  
I wish I knew who you were, cause I'd totally come up to  
Minnesota and jump your bones. I'm havin' sooo much  
Fun! You should come down here and I'll show you a  
good time!"_ I blinked and reread the e-mail three or four times. _She's drunk… definitely drunk…_ Or on something. I smiled, sure she'd flirted with me in recent E-mails but this was quite more than that.

_"Umm… Hi D  
I'm going to assume you were very drunk when you  
wrote the note to me. I'm also going to assume you  
had a good time. Umm yeah, well I'm going to class  
now… I guess you'll get back to me later… I can't wait  
to hear what you have to say about that, Embry" _ I wrote grinning. _That will be an interesting explanation. _

"**Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

I wasn't looking forward to the confrontation that was assured to happen with my next candidate and Nate Schmidt so I left Schmidt back at base, taking Lisa Williams with me. I wasn't quite sure if she respected me by now so I thought I'd stop tip toeing around it and flat out ask.

"Ms. Williams, Do you respect me and trust me as a leader?" I asked bluntly. She was always blunt with me and I assumed this would be no different.

"I don't think you have the motivation to be the leader this team needs. I lost both my parents to vampires. I won't be content until the Vampire plague is wiped clean off the face of this world."

"Oh, good, that's all." I said calmly.

"That's all? How can that be good?" she asked angrily.

"Simple… because you don't doubt my abilities to lead, just my motivation. If that is your only problem with me then you'll soon have no problem with me."

"You seem rather confident." She smirked.

"Just because I'm not prone to irrational outbursts doesn't mean I don't experience anger." I said calmly. Her anger surfaced.

"You need to learn to control your anger, if your enemy can so easily goad you in to rage you'll quickly become sloppy and die."

"So you obviously know everything?" She sneered at me.

"Just enough… Enough about manipulating people who are easily angered."

"You think you can manipulate me?" she scoffed at me.

"How do you know I haven't already?" I asked. She stopped and thought about it.

"You don't know because you've been too busy being mad." She tried to argue but stopped short.

"I haven't by the way. I haven't taken advantage of your enraged state, but from this point on I will so I suggest you make an effort to calm down because if I can control you, an enemy might be able to as well."

"Why aren't you having this talk with Nate Schmidt?"

"Because above all else he's willing to admit when he's made a mistake and when there's something more important occurring he will swallow his pride and do what he's told. He might fight it but as long as he respects me as a leader I don't have to fear his job performance. You on the other hand, I'm not sure about." It seemed she was considering my words. I stepped through the door in to the small room. There sitting in the chair was "Tiny" Tim Briggs.

"Tim Briggs?" I called out knowing it was him. He stood up slowly, and kept standing up as a tower of muscle until he reached his full height.

"Yeah?" He bellowed standing over me. If I hadn't had my years of military and hand to hand combat training I'd probably be intimidated.

"We're here to recruit you in to a special force devoted to protecting the world." Tim gave a deep belly laugh.

"That's pretty specific isn't it?" he said sarcastically.

"And I'm supposed to just go along hearing that? Leave my whole life behind, and from the sounds of it, never see them again."

"Certain precautions need to be taken but under the correct circumstances you will be able to visit them."

"So you want me to leave my home, my future, my chances of seeing the people I love for no assurance of pay, and a large chance of death without even knowing what I'm doing."

"Your pay will be substantial and all needs will be taken care of… but yes. You would spend the near future studying and fighting daily to perfect your craft."

"This truly is a global crisis?"

"Yes… a crisis that has been turned a blind eye on for the last two millennia. Now we have the technology to deal with it." He nodded his head.

"I assume I can still get my life in order while we're in preparation?" I nodded.

"Then I'm in." _Good… He came along much easier than I thought he would. Two left… unfortunately the one I'm saving for last I don't know if I can convince him to join us. He's not military, I can't play towards his sense of duty. He's a first generation American so I can barely play to his patriotism. I have little to no intel on him because he has nothing military related in the U.S. and most of his life was spent in a small village in Japan. All the intel I have on him is a video of him soundly defeating three people who were all wielding Kendo sticks like he was. _ Truthfully I had more information on his family heritage than him. I was putting off his recruitment till the end because it would be by far most difficult. At least the next one was an easy sell, from my reading on him all I'd need to do was have Lisa ask him and he'd go all gooey eyed and say yes.

**Mike's POV**

Alice and Jasper were gone from school and weren't at the Cullen's when I went to visit. _Where could they be? Why? No one else is missing school._ I thought to myself. Embry and I had been getting closer as of late. We drummed together all the time, for some reason they had two drum sets in their basement. One was obviously Embry's but the other one… the one I played seemed to be unused completely. It was as if they had this drum set _for_ me. _That's crazy Mike, stop being so damn suspicious. _Truthfully I always felt suspicious when things starting going my way. Besides my family I trusted nothing to last longer than a short time.

_What about Rina? _I asked myself. _Yeah, my blind spot. _I didn't want to trust her. I didn't want to let her in but I couldn't help it. I couldn't force myself to put up walls. It was so hard for me to see her, be so close to her and need her so much but simply not have her. I'd never have her. Maybe if I had many other friends I'd turn and walk away… maybe if she was mean like most other girls, it was easier to be mean about it than deal with the feelings. _She values my friendship._ It's these traits that only make it harder. I watch her and see she's just an arm's length away, but she might as well be a mile, because I can't reach her, and I never will. I wish I could let go of her, but she was my best friend, even if I wasn't hers. I swallowed hard and forced myself to focus on the drum set.

**Rosalie's POV**

"What do you mean you're on your way now?"

_"I mean what I say, I'm stopping by for a visit, you've never been so opposed to me stopping by, besides I thought Alice would have told you by now." _Tanya coming here now was exactly what I didn't need to happen. She had a way of making trouble.

"Alice is out with Jasper."

_"Like mating like rabbits or hunting?"_

"Who knows maybe both?" I said causally.

_"You're not talking normally. What's up?"_

"Nothing."

_"Bullshit."_

"It's nothing, I just don't think you should stop by, maybe on your way back to wherever you're going."

_"Ohh that's cold even for you Rose, just because my heart stopped beating a while ago doesn't mean it still hurts."_

"I'm serious!"

_"I'm already in Stearns County, I can't wait to see what has you so protected and hidden." _

"It's nothing."

_"Yeah, whatever, see you soon love." Great just great! Just what we need Tanya coming in and raising hell. I played through my options and none of them really kept Tanya from seeing Mike besides tackling her and brawling with her away from the house. Unfortunately it wasn't the most rational answer but the only one that seemed to ensure that she wouldn't meet Mike, unless she won._ I heard her approach in the distance and the door opened and she silently appeared in front of me with a smile.

"So what's this mystery all about?"

"Nothing… but you really should leave."

"If there's nothing to hide then I can stay for a little while and talk. We never have our nice talks like we used to Rose."

"Okay fine, let's go out then have a chat." I said trying to urge her out the door while I heard Embry and Mike playing down in the basement.

"Huh… Two drum sets? Who could be on the second? I thought you and Embry were the only two with any desire to try drumming." Tanya said moving towards the basement. I blocked her way.

"So there it is isn't it?" She said trying to get past me.

"There what is?"

"Whatever it is that you're trying to hide."

"I told you I'm not trying to hide anything." I heard the door turning behind me. I turned and Mike came up the stairs stopping dead in his tracks inches away from me. His body tightened up he went completely rigid and his eyes widened. I could hear his heart rate skyrocket. His arms which quite nearly grazed mine snapped to his sides. His eyes wandered for only a moment noticing Tanya behind me before awkwardly stepped past me towards the other room. Embry came bounding up the stairs after him.

"Oh, Hey Tanya." He said causally as he followed Mike. I turned back to Tanya who turned her head reaching to see around the corner where Embry and Mike ran off to.

"So… He's the secret… I think he's kind of cute."

"No Tanya, he's not another one of your conquests." I said venomously.

"Ahh you jumped to defense so quickly. You like him!" she giggled.

"No I don't."

"Come on now Rosalie! It's not fair you can't have him and Emmett!"

"I don't have him!" I argued quietly knowing he was less than 20 feet away.

"By that reaction, yeah… you do, especially since he doesn't know about the nightlife." _Nice way to say we're vampires._

"But let's give that poor boy a chance to recover, what did you say his name is?"

"I didn't."

"Oh… you really do like him!" she giggled again.

"Okay, yeah let's go for a run." I said urging her out the door.

**Mike's POV**

I waited until I was sure I heard the door closing behind them. I sighed.

"Seriously? Is everyone you know just drop dead gorgeous?" Embry laughed.

"No… I might know a person or two that are butt ugly…" We began killing zombies, which I wasn't the best as to begin with but now that I was distracted. _Who is that girl? How does Rosalie know her? Why did it seem like Rosalie was trying to keep her from me? Jealousy? Protecting me? What was she protecting me from?_

"Ahh! Come on Mike, we only made it to the fourth round that time!" I heard the door opening behind to front. Embry sat oblivious next to me. _Maybe if he focused and paid attention to the little details he would have heard it over the sound of zombies. _Embry was pretty cool but didn't notice the little things I did from my martial arts training. I don't let little things slip my notice.

"Hi! You must be Mike." She said with a big smile almost as if she appeared there next to me. I don't understand how that was possible though, I was paying attention to where they were. _You're just thinking too much, you heard wrong._

"uh… yeah. I'm Mike." I said standing up. I extended my hand to shake hers and she shook it softly. I shook back firm but it felt odd, like she was _trying_ to be soft. _Whatever Mike you're delusional again._

"Hi Mike. I'm Tanya." She said with a big smile that made me force myself not to smile in return.

"So how do you know the Cullens?" I asked awkwardly trying to make small talk. Truthfully I was trying not to stare at her, then I was trying not to look like I was trying not to stare at her so I looked away. Then realized I should probably look at her, but that made me awkward because I never was comfortable looking at people I was talking to.

"Oh We're family."

"We're?" I asked. Rosalie stepped in.

"She's our cousin, she lives in Alaska." Rosalie said off handedly. I nodded.

"So what are you playing?" Tanya asked me.

"Ahh… COD." I said awkwardly.

"COD?" Tanya asked.

"Well Technically it's COD MW2" Embry corrected.

"COD M2W?" Tanya asked giggling.

"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2"

"Well it was very nice meeting you Mike, I really hope we get to see each other again." Tanya said before getting up to head out the door.

"You're leaving already?" I asked trying not to sound disappointed.

"Yes, I was just passing through, maybe we'll see each other again soon, I like to come through here often." She said smiling at me. I tried to keep myself from smiling but failed.

"Sure, that'd be great."

"**Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

I had brought "Tiny" Tim Briggs and waited for the sparks to fly, making sure to move everything flammable. I bet myself less than five minutes from when they met fists would be flying.

"What are you looking at?" Schmidt asked not backing down as Briggs walked by. Briggs was astonished by the little man who wasn't giving up an inch.

"Step aside fun size." He said laughing at Schmidt.

"Better small and useful then big and an ogre." Schmidt said straight to Briggs.

"What did you say?" Briggs said trying to intimidate Schmidt. _Yeah… that's not going to work._

"Did I stutter? Let me say this a bit clearer since you are obviously missing the cognitive reasoning to make sense of it… Ugg, I are stupid ogre. Ugh. Go kill with club, ugg ugg." Schmidt said straight to him. I turned my back looking at my watch. 3 minutes 9 seconds, longer than I thought. Lisa entered the room looking past me at the fight that was occurring behind my back. I took a beer out of the fridge and popped it open and started to drink it.

"ah… Schmidt and Briggs are fighting." Lisa pointed out. I reached in the fridge and grabbed a second beer handing it to her. She shrugged and took it cracking it opening and drinking with me.

"Yeah… they are…" I said still not facing the fight behind me.

"They are really kicking the crap out of each other." I nodded.

"Either winning?" I said offhanded as I worked on my beer hoping to finish it before I'd need to intervene.

"Looks like Schmidt got Briggs in to an arm bar." Lisa observed.

"He's not going to let go is he?" I asked with a sigh. _Nope, I wouldn't finish my beer._

"Sure doesn't look like it." I shook my head placing my beer on the counter and jumped over the bar to a small weapons arsenal. _They scoffed at me when I requested a bar in the complex. Said I was treating alcoholism with alcohol. I politely told them that no one was an alcoholic on my team and a team that gets dizzy drunk together watches out for each other._ I picked the m9 Beretta and a Tactical combat knife. Both I attached to my belt and turned to face the fight that had ensued behind me.

"What are those for?" Lisa asked.

"Proving a point." I said making my way to stand over Schmidt who was in the process of screwing up Briggs for the near future.

"Release him now Nate." I ordered.

"No, he hasn't submitted yet, I need to win." _And this is why I brought the weapons._ I thought before I stomped on Nate Schmidt's own shoulder pushing him down and forcing him to break his grip. He rolled up to his feet and threw an angry haymaker at me._ Stupid move. _I thought to myself as I moved in and easily blocked away his hay maker with my left arm and reached across my body with my right arm grabbing the m9 and throwing my elbow in to his chest. I slipped my Beretta in to my left hand as his face came down mouth open gasping for air. My right hand wrapped around the back of his head and I shoved the barrel of the m9 in to his mouth.

"You see this? This is an m9 Beretta. You just lost."

"I know what you're thinking, 'It's not fair!' 'We weren't fighting with weapons.' Blah blah blah! We're not going to fight in this pretend world where people play by the rules. Why? Because vampires don't play by the rules. In the real world you're already dead." I pulled the tactical knife out of my belt and put it up against his throat.

"And you." I said looking in the wall mirror behind Nate Schmidt. Jeff Briggs was laughing. I dropped the knife and caught it with the blade backwards instead of forward. I spun quickly with a strike to the side of his face. He started to drop and then I put the blade to his Adam's apple.

"You're no better." I said with my attention at Briggs.

"You two are allies, who the hell cares which one of you would win in a fight? It doesn't matter because you'll be fighting together. And Schmidt, if you would have broken his arm, shoulder, whatever he'd be out for some time recuperating it. Let's say he misses a month of active training. Then we're on the field and Briggs here misses something and you die. He could have saved your life but one he was still mad at you for breaking his arm, and two he didn't know how to react because he didn't have the practice in it, so you just killed yourself." I said to Schmidt.

"And Briggs, who are you doing favors by picking fights with your allies? Trying to feel out whose the top dog? Well let me make it very clear to you. IT'S ME. I am the alpha around here so shut the hell up and work with us." I removed my knife from Brigg's throat and gun from Schmidt's mouth.

"Come on team. We've got training to do, we're about do hunt monsters that most people think are uncatchable, trackable, and unkillable. We're going to prove them wrong. We're going to hunt Vampires."

**Embry's POV**

"_Oh my God I'm so embarrassed! I can't believe I  
wrote all of that. Please forget it. It was my roommate  
Blaze's twenty third birthday party and I got kind of  
drunk! Please don't mention it!" _I smiled thinking about her drunk e-mail. It was quite revealing about her and how she felt about me. I'd be lying if I said up to this point I wasn't suppressing my feelings for her. I just wasn't ready yet but it hurt to keep pushing them aside and it was pretty apparent she felt the same way. I sighed, if it was her wish to ignore it, I'd ablidge.

"_Don't worry about it D, we can just pretend it  
never happened. I hope you had a good time  
with Blaze. Maybe next time you get that drunk  
you'll take a video, I'm sure I'd love to see it.  
one last thing… Jump your bones? People still  
say that?"_ I wrote laughing to myself.

**I know I'm updating again on a Thursday, don't get used to it though! I give myself till Friday every week to update. I'm just getting a bit ahead of myself (so I can take a day or two off from writing, and yes it takes me that long to write a chapter) getting this chapter started was difficult, as getting every chapter started is. The first thousand words are always the hardest. I'd like to thank my long time reviewers who have stuck with me, and my recent reviewers for showing interest, as always any ideas you have are more than welcome. Remember to give high fives, knucks, rolls of twenty dollar bills and all reviews to the review area. Catch you on the flipside.**


	12. Meant to Live

**Disclaimer:**

**Disclaimer Deuce:**

"**Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

Briggs and Schmidt hadn't appreciated me making a fool of them and now I was getting the backlash. _If they're busy hating me maybe they won't have time to hate each other._ I thought to myself. The very painful side effect was that when it became their day to teach they did what they did best, and hurt me doing it.

Briggs spent the day teaching throws, slams, and other techniques based around how the body is formatted, he pulled no punch dropping, tossing, and slamming me. He then went in to depth on grapples, proving that he has a better knowledge of wrestling grappling than I do… repeatedly. It didn't humble me because it was never about pride. A wrestler of his caliber should be able to beat me in wrestling.

Schmidt was no better. I got the brunt of his sweeps, and attacks from a wooden knife, blunt end but it definitely left marks. They had their own living quarters that were interconnected. Mine were alone away from them, and luckily with my own Ice bath.

I closed my eyes and relished the ice cold numbness taking over my body. I forced myself to breathe slowly making sure to let my body adjust normally to the ice. I didn't want to go in to shock. I heard a loud knock.

_"Commander Elzam, it's Ms. Williams." _I silently cursed climbing out of the ice bath. I toweled off quickly.

"One moment." I called grabbing the cover and trying to hide the bath. I didn't need my subordinates seeing my weakness. I grabbed my pants and threw them on. Found the nearest shirt and threw it on making sure it wasn't backwards. I opened the door still a bit cold.

"Yes Ms. Williams?" I answered short. _I needed to keep them angry at me. At least until the whole team forges a bond together, then I can become part of the team, but until then it's more important that they become one._

"I was wondering why I am joining you to recruit our new member." She stated plainly.

"Bluntly speaking he's a philanthropist."

"So you're bringing me along as eye candy?" she said angrily. I nodded. I felt like an asshole for doing it but it fueled her flame.

"I believe it'll be the most effective way to recruit him. Is there a problem Ms. Williams?" I said harshly.

"No sir."She said. Before turning and walking away. I sighed after closing the door. After the initial bad interaction with her I just figured it'd be easier to deal with this way. This way I didn't need to explain why I was in such a bad mood when we met. This way she didn't need to know me. I stripped down and climbed back in the ice tub.

**Mike's POV**

To say my mind had been fairly confused lately would be an understatement. Rina broke up with her boyfriend which only made things more complicated for me. Even though I'd told myself fifty times she didn't have feelings for me I still found myself becoming hopeful. For some reason beyond any logic I felt unfaithful to Rina for having feelings for both Rosalie AND Tanya now. I tried to wrap my head around it. Logically speaking I owed her nothing of the sort. She was dating, she wasn't interested in me but at the same time I couldn't shake the feeling. It was an annoying amount of loyalty. Almost as if my very mind belonged to her, and if not her, Rosalie in which I'd feel bad for having feelings for Tanya. I rubbed my face and groaned in frustration staring up at the ceiling of my room. It was one of those nights that I had the misfortune of thinking.

_I'll finally ask her out, flat out._ I knew it was a bad idea but there was still that part of me, that small part that hoped against hope that there was something more to it. Maybe she didn't lead me on because she had a boyfriend. Maybe… but I needed to ask. I couldn't find one logical reason why I wanted to do this. I sighed heavily. _Since when has logic ever had to do with anything?_

"Hey, Jed and Alex are home!" James yelled up the stairs. I jumped out of bed and sped down the stairs. I waited for Jed to drop his bags before hugging him tightly lifting him off the ground. Never to be outdone he did the same lifting me off the ground. I moved past him to hug Alex. I hadn't seen them since Christmas break. I really missed my brothers. My mom walked in from the other room.

"So how are your classes at Stout?" Mom asked.

"Ehh you know, still have a professor or two teaching college mathematics that can't speak English… so that always makes class interesting… and by interesting I mean difficult." Jed said shrugging. Alex laughed next to him.

"So you have Professor Chattopadhyay huh?" Alex said I only assumed slaughtering the name.

"I mean really, shouldn't being able to speak the language you're teaching in be a requirement?" Jed said frustrated.

"You'd think…" Alex laughed. I missed them both so much. Both of them going to the same college made for easy carpooling though. Alex was like he liked to call a "super senior" and Jed was a sophomore. My thoughts returned to Tanya. Alex turned back to James, Jed and I

"Practice Saturday night?" I nodded. It'd been too long since we played music together.

**Embry's POV**

I didn't even know what to call what D and I did anymore. We talked all the time, hours on end, and it was getting more and more difficult to act like it was just a causal friendship. I tried never to take a step back and assess what was becoming a relationship. More than just a little I wondered if I'd ever get to meet D, if I could tell her who I was. And that was the tricky part.

Every E-mail seemed to skirt closer to my identity. _What if I fell in love? How could I know? What if she left like Leah? What if she left after I told her I was a wolf?_ No… I could never tell her I was a wolf, not until we were ready to be married. _What if she wouldn't marry a wolf? Could I marry someone and hide half of my life from them? Embry are you thinking of marriage? _It wasn't that I thought about marrying her but I needed to remember that it was what it was something I should look for. _If I couldn't possibly see myself telling her there's no reason to keep talking to her._

"**Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

There he was. Jeremy White. I'd read a full jacket on him and it didn't make me comfortable. He like me took notice of people. He looked closer, weaknesses, targets on the body. I would have to bite away the pain to hide my injuries from training from him. I might be able to fool the other three but he would be another story. I breathed deep and walked normally trying not to grit my teeth from the pain as I walked. He turned and faced us. A smile crossed his lips looking at Lisa Williams then his attention turned to me. He watched me, assessed me spent much more time staring at me. He was paying more attention to me then Williams which wasn't the point of her coming here. She was meant to distract him and he wasn't being distracted.

He smiled deeply looking back at Williams but I could tell he was still regarding me.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of such beauty at the shooting range?" he said. Lisa snorted.

"I want you to join my Unit." I said plainly. I knew it wouldn't be that simple but I didn't need to give up too much information.

"What's your name blonde?" He said raising and eyebrow at me.

"Colonel Mustard." I said returning his look.

"ahuh…" He said returning his eyes to Williams.

"I did my job boss, let's get out of here before killer here gets any ideas."

"Ow, that hurts! I've got feelings too… Miss? Oh darlin' tell me your name." White asked almost begging.

"Ms. Scarlet." She said continuing with the reference. I smirked. He caught it.

"Oh you think it's funny huh? Stupid cripple." My blood drained from my face. He smirked as he saw it happen.

"Oh you thought I would notice the way you're trying to hide the limp in your left leg, and by the way you move your body in normal movement I'd guess you got your ass wooped pretty badly, some back pain, bruised ribs. I'm guessing how your arm is bent slightly at your side against your stomach even now that there's an injury or two there the way you move your head suggests some neck pain… hah you're a freaking walking car accident." He said with a laugh. I turned my head slightly to look at Lisa who was staring at me with a disbelieving look on her face.

"I'll bet anything he's treated you like dog shit right? Do you want to know why?" White asked.

"White! Shut up now." I said even though I knew I was too sore to make him.

"hah, stop me then." He goaded. He was special forces, just like me, and I probably was the better fighter but I was pretty slow from the soreness in my body. I charged anyway and took a swing he easily blocked away and palm struck me in the chest right over a bruise. I staggered backwards grabbing my ribs and winced.

"Hurts like a bitch don't it Jack Elzam?" I tried to hide my surprise but it appeared.

"Yeah, I know who you are… well I know your name, your jacket is sealed up pretty damn tight… top brass wouldn't give me much." I wanted to keep him distracted from telling Williams about how I was manipulating the team to hate me.

"But where were we? Hell, we were talking about how El ZAM here is manipulating you." Williams didn't like that at all.

"Since there is a distance between you when you stand next to each other I know you're not going out, or even really fond of each other. She's your subordinate but second guesses you. You didn't tell her about the injuries which you're hiding from the nice lookin' lady here. You're not trying to be a hard ass about it to impress her so there has to be another reason." He said. If I was going to stand through it I would at least judge his abilities to deduce.

"And since you don't want her sympathy and you aren't trying to impress her I'm guessing you're making her mad at you intentionally." I couldn't believe he figured that out by how far away we were from each other. Her expression changed as she looked at me as if seeing me for the first time.

"Since in the future you'll be working together it's counterproductive to have her hate you… unless there are more people who don't get along… Then getting them all to hate you would be a good way to get them to like each other…" he said crossing his arms.

"Am I right?" he said smirking.

"That's the reason you had those two fight?" She asked me flat out.

"Ms. Scarlet we've got business to attend to." I said flatly.

"You're doing it right now, aren't you? Trying to turn me against you?" I sighed.

"Yes, and it was working too." I said still clenching my side.

"Hah… yeah… if you want me, beat me and I'll join you."

"No strings attached?" I asked in disbelief.

"I know whatever you doing is pretty damn important that made it prit near impossible to learn anything about your crew. So yeah, beat me and I'll join your merry band." He said mocking me. I took a step forward and Williams stopped me with her hand on my chest.

"I've got this one." She said.

"Ohh I get to go a round with the pretty lady… I can't wait." Williams turned to face me a foot away and undid one more button on her shirt showing some cleavage.

"Yeah… that should make this easy." She said quietly to me. her hand slid down to the side of her pants where her Tonfa was secured. She popped the button and I realized exactly what she was doing and smiled.

"You sure learn fast." I said with a smile and for the first time I saw her smile back genuinely. She turned towards him walking and for the most part looking causally.

His eyes were drawn straight to her chest, which I didn't fault him for. Regardless even with his lack of focus he probably could take Williams out easily… if she was playing by the rules. She brought her arm up in a large swinging motion he didn't even look just put his arm up to block the blow. The Tonfa was out of his vision the entire time until it connected with a loud thud against his arm. He looked in horror and naturally pulled his arm in against his chest. Williams swung it again and he caught it she stepped in and stopped on his toes. He winced and moved his leg open just for a moment and that was all the opening she needed. She planted her foot in his crotch dropping him to his knees immediately, then he rolled on to his side in pain.

"I won… I expect to see you again soon." Williams said turning back to me.

"Come on let's go." She said to me. I walked as normally as I could.

"Oh please stop trying to hide it I know you're injured." I started to limp slightly it was out of my nature to show weakness.

"You never told me why you hate vampires."

"No I haven't." I said flatly.

"You don't plan on telling me do you?"

"Never." The image of the vampire was burned in to my memory, I remember everything about him, _I will hunt him down… I will kill him… I will enjoy every moment of it._

"You know why I hate vampires, why can't I know?"

"Perks of command." I said emotionlessly. Her anger started rising again.

"Damn it! You're doing it again, stop trying to piss me off!"

"How do you know I'm not just an ass hole?" I asked plainly as I could.

"Simple, I can read that this isn't who you really are… it's something you put on. It took me a while to figure out but every so often a glimmer of out of character creeps in… I notice it. You're not who you are acting to be." She said assessing me.

"Interesting theory." I said shrugging. I heard her grumble and clench her fist and I tried not to laugh.

"**Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

"Why is it so important to you to know why I hate vampires?" I asked trying to pass the time, and learn a bit more about Williams, anything that might be useful.

"I figure it's the one thing that will be real about you." I shrugged as we got out of the truck and made it back to the complex.

"I'm going to go to my room and file some reports." I lied.

"Ahuh… sure you are." I shrugged and walked away regardless. When I was finally alone I could think._ One last person, Guy Nakamura. _ I knew he'd be the hard sell, he was the only person I had to recruit with no military background and no obvious hate of vampires. I held him for last because I was worried he'd decline. He was also the hardest person to sell to my superiors. There was no documented evidence of him ever firing a firearm, and in fact since he was an emigrant from Japan there was very little information we did have on him. As far as I was concerned I knew everything I needed to know about him. I didn't need his school records or his transcripts. He was the closest thing alive to a Bushido warrior in the U.S. and I needed him.

**Tanya's POV**

I stood in blackness of night outside of the long barn. I stared in to the light. I heard footsteps in the distance coming from the river. _Cullens… Alice must have seen me here._

"Stalker." Rosalie teased.

"No worse than you from what I've heard. So what's the deal with this guy anyway?" I asked watching them play music.

"What do you mean?" Rosalie asked feigning innocence.

"As long as I've known you you've never shown feelings for anyone but Emmett, and barely that at times." I said crossing my eyes turning to face her.

"I don't have feelings for Mike, he's just one of Embry's friends." I laughed at her quietly.

"Do you even believe that? I saw the way you protected him… how you looked at it. He might not know it, but you know it."

"Look at you… you're here too."

"He's interesting…" I said fading off.

"Like, Edward interesting, or science fair interesting." Rosalie asked. She had an edge to her voice.

"Cause if it's the ladder you better leave now, he's been through enough in his life without you dragging him along.

"Like you are?"

"At least I like…" Rosalie started to say then stopped. I smiled triumphantly.

"See!" She grumbled.

"So who are the rest of the guys playing?"

"Oh those are his brothers, James is his younger brother on the keyboard, obviously that's him on the drums, his older Brother Jed is on the bass guitar, and his oldest brother Alex is the one singing and on the guitar." Rosalie explained as the song ended.

"Hey what song do you want to practice next?" Alex looking back at Mike and James.

"Something I play guitar on." James said plainly.

"Something from Switchfoot?" Alex suggested. He turned back to Jed.

"Sound good to me… how about you Mike?"

"Anything as long as we don't need to play twist and shout again… I hate that song… so… very… much." Jed laughed.

"Does 'Meant to Live' work?" Alex suggested. James nodded getting out behind the keyboard. Alex tuned his guitar down for the song and James grabbed his guitar.

"Fumbling his confidence  
And wondering why the world has passed him by  
Hoping that he's bent for more than arguments  
And failed attempts to fly, fly

We were meant to live for so much more  
Have we lost ourselves?  
Somewhere we live inside  
Somewhere we live inside  
We were meant to live for so much more  
Have we lost ourselves?  
Somewhere we live inside

Dreaming about Providence  
And whether mice or men have second tries  
Maybe we've been livin with our eyes half open  
Maybe we're bent and broken, broken

We want more than this world's got to offer  
We want more than this world's got to offer  
We want more than the wars of our fathers  
And everything inside screams for second life, yeah

We were meant to live for so much more  
Have we lost ourselves?  
We were meant to live for so much more  
Have we lost ourselves?  
We were meant to live for so much more  
Have we lost ourselves?  
We were meant to live  
We were meant to live" I finally turned back to Rosalie.

"The truth is… I don't know… I know I'm attracted to him, but I barely know him yet… but I want to get to know him." Rosalie nodded.

"You better be good to him…" Rosalie warned.

"And if I'm not?" I teased.

"No big deal… I'll just rip your head off and burn it." She said casually.

**Embry's POV**

_I don't care what risk it is. I'll bare it. I need her. _ I thought to myself. Before opening my e-mail.

_"Hey D…"_

**Romans, countrymen, lend me your ear. I'm still working on where my story is going, rather I know exactly where it ends but getting there is the trick. 'life is not a destination it's a journey.' And all that deep crap. Ya know. Well thanks for reading remember to review, give rolls of twenties, high fives, knucks, and comments. Catch you on the flip side.**


	13. Fix You

**Disclaimer: 1000 words to say I'm not Stephenie Meyer**

**Disclaimer Deuce: Has been watching Anime's again… (in particular Darker than Black) and realizing that Kate COULD be completely awesome… but isn't… poor kate.**

"**Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

_ No! stop it! let her go… no!_ I woke with a start. I breathed slowly trying to slow down my heart rate. I threw myself out of bed knowing I couldn't sleep for another couple of hours. I made my way out to Trombe. I closed the barn door behind me I slowly moved over to Trombe kneeling down next to him. His head popped up before I touched him. I wrapped my arms around his neck as I sat down.

"It happened again… yes. Another nightmare… It was as real as the night it happened. I watched my Wife killed in front of me. I saw it all and I was helpless to stop it… I couldn't save her…" I told Trombe. I closed my eyes tightly and felt tears escaping my eyes. Trombe huffed at me leaning his head in to me.

"Thanks Trombe." I sat patting him. I closed my eyes drifting in to a drifting sleep listening to the smooth breathing of Trombe.

**Embry's POV**

"She wakes up  
Rage and grace  
Pulling me closer  
Pushing away  
And me the sharpest thorn on Your vine  
Twisting and turning were all Intertwined" _Leah? Leah… Why'd you leave?_ I groaned not wanting to get up. My own nightmares still haunting me as I woke up.

"Broken wing  
Empty glass  
Words that scream and bounce Right back  
She says, "You know, we'd all like to rearrange" I rolled over trying to get comfortable and get back to sleep. I knew it was time to get up but fought for every minute of sleep.

"I wish I could fix you  
And make you how I want you  
I wish I could fix you  
And I wish you could fix me

I wish I could heal you  
And mend where you are broken  
I wish I could heal you  
And I wish you could heal me

The beaming sunrise buries the night  
The setting sun destroys the light  
And she said "baby I've got to get going"  
Cutting each other without even knowing

She sees a million stars, like holes in the sky  
All gods tears for her they cry  
And I am in her rain

I wish I could fix you  
And make you how I want you  
I wish I could fix you  
And I wish you could fix me." I finally gave up on sleeping and groggily reached for my MP3 player.

"Broken wing  
Empty glass  
Words that scream and bounce Right back  
She says, "You know, we'd all like to rearrange" I turned the music off resigning myself to the fate of waking up. _Damn it Leah… you used to be such a good thought to wake up to. _I sighed to myself throwing my legs off the bed propelling me up to a sitting base._ Better not tell D about thinking about Leah waking up._ We'd gotten in to a couple fights about that very subject. I didn't completely understand why she got so angry about it. Every time we talked about previous relationships or relationship experience I brought up Leah… It couldn't be helped she was the only girlfriend I ever had.

_Relationships…_ It was one battle I never knew how to fight. D hadn't talked to me in two days because of it. _Oh what a big deal!_ I thought sarcastically. It WAS a big deal though, we talked all the time, we'd talk during the day too if I wasn't held down by that whole going to high school instead of college thing. At least after these years I'd go to college.

I threw on a t shirt and pants and socks. I guess I was kind of ready for school. I groggily stumbled down the stairs towards the computer and checked my e-mail again.

_"Hey Embry, I miss you  
I'm sorry I've been flipping out lately about Leah…  
I just don't like her and she messed up your life you  
deserve better than that. It's hard for me to hear you  
defend her even with everything she put you through  
it kind of makes me sick. I love you Embry, Please  
respond  
Destiny"_

I sighed looking at the e-mail. My heart rate slowed to a manageable pace. _How do I tell her I defend Leah because I know I have feelings for her still? How do I tell her I cherish the memories we shared? I don't… I just don't tell her how I felt, how I feel about Leah, how I smile sometimes thinking back on our past._

D was very jealous and very pushy. She didn't want me to see Leah… or talk to her again. I didn't blame her honestly but didn't know how it made me feel.

_"Hey Hun, I missed you too.  
I'm sorry for bring up my ex. I'll try not to in the  
future. You need to understand she's the only  
girlfriend I've ever had so I don't have a lot of  
experience with this stuff… I'm glad we're  
talking again, I really missed you.  
Embry"_

I sighed finishing the e-mail. I didn't know how long I could keep avoiding the last three years of my life, lie to her about it, and hide Leah all at the same time. Mike had given me breathing exercises to work on relaxing. He could tell I was always tense. I stretched out my arms slowly taking in a long breath and counting to ten. Then I slowly forced my body closed exhaling. My body relaxed. I didn't understand the fighting application of these breathing exercise but Mike said they were Military breathing to stretch the body and give energy. I yawned heavily. _Guess it didn't work._

At least these days I was trying to take a look on the brighter side. Sure I lied to the D every day but I had someone I could lie to everyday. It added an element of life to my life, and was slightly less dangerous than picking fights with armed thugs. Maybe someday I'd come clean with her. I hope I do. Someday I will be able to share my whole life with her. And maybe she'll start trusting me with things before then. She was very guarded… never told me why but I wouldn't force it. I pulled a box of cinnamon toast crunch out of the cupboard for breakfast. Some days I wanted cereal instead of a tremendous twelve from the Cullens.

I smiled chewing the sugary cereal that reminded me of my childhood back in La Push. Some times "Cinnamon Toast Crunch" was my breakfast of champions. I crunched the quickly softening cereal and finished the bowl in short order. I needed something to get me. My mind wandered back to Leah and Offspring. _"She wakes up Rage and grace Pulling me closer Pushing away"_ I needed something better in my head, something more positive. I made my way back to the computer and to . I browsed for a while then found a song to make me smile. _"Into yesterday" by sugar ray. _I thought leaning back stretching in the seat. I closed my eyes with my arms and head hanging back, I watched Alice approach me upside down.

"Whatcha listening to Embry?"

"Sugar Ray." I said still looking at her upside down. Her smile lit up the room. I smiled and yawned while hanging over the chair cracking my back.

"Your back must be getting stiff and messed up again… you sure you shouldn't have Rosalie correct it? She's very good." Alice asked and I sat back up.

"I never know with what's going on with Mike if she'll screw up my back on purpose for asking." I muttered trying to say it quiet enough Rosalie wouldn't hear me.

"Oh come on how could you even think that about me?" Rosalie said stepping in to the room. Alice raised her eyebrow at Rosalie.

"Oh fine, I guess I'd do it but still!"

**Mike's POV**

I listened to each conversation going on around me hoping I couldn't hear any of them talking about me. I sighed. _Just another day._ It pissed me off that these jerks could get away with saying just about anything as long as they didn't hit me. Of course they wouldn't hit me, I could beat the crap out of them.

"Holy shit who is that hot girl?" I heard one of them say quietly. I just stared in to the back of my empty locker assessing if I should bring my biology book home with me or not. I felt a soft touch of my back and assumed it was someone passing by and ignored it. I knelt down and grabbed my biology book.

"Excuse me Mike." I stood up quickly with my biology book in hand and turned to face who was addressing me. I dropped my book which she easily caught. My breath shot out of my body and my heart rate rose, standing less than two feet away was Tanya.

"Ahh… Hi… Tanya…" I said blushing fiercely. _What the heck is she doing here? What should I do? _I was in panic mode.

"I decided to spend the weekend with the Cullens back from the U of M. I was hoping you would come by so I could spend some time with you." She smiled big at me. She was glowing.

"Ah…" _Holy crap Mike! Say yes! What the heck is going on?_

"Sure." I said trying to sound causal hoping she could hear my thundering heart beat.

"Biology huh? I'd love to work with you on that." She winked at me as she handed me my book. My face was bright red. She split the crowd that had formed to watch the exchange. I quickly made my way out of the school towards the school bus catching it quickly before it closed. I put my head against the bus seat. _What does she see in me? What does Rosalie see in me that I don't see?_

"**Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

"Why do all of us need to recruit this one?" 'Tiny' Tim Briggs asked.

"Honestly? Because I don't know what will convince him to join us. Every one of you has had a psychological profile of you done up so I knew what made you tick, but he's had no experience, no profiles made, so I needed every resource I had." I explained.

"That's a bit blunt…" White laughed next to me.

"If you want to get coddled go back to your mommas" I snorted. Lisa looked at me with a knowing look then down at my left knee. She had been watching me ever since White made those comments about my injuries, the damn sniper had basically ruined my strategy for Williams. I knocked on the traditional Japanese door. The door opened slowly. Guy stood in a Gi. the basic martial arts uniform looked worn and used. In his right hand was a Kendo stick.

"Come in." He said. I looked down he was bare foot. I quickly observed. White was the first one to step in. he was still wearing his boots that had mud and snow on them from outside. Guy turned around quickly at the sound.

"You show no respect?" He said pointed his Kendo stick at White.

"Yeah, get that fucking twig out of my face before I break you." White said unthreatened.

"Boots! Off!" He yelled in heavy accented English. White finally bent down and took off his combat boots and threw them outside behind him leaving him in socks. A kendo stick was thrown to him. White threw the stick to the side.

"I don't need your toy to kick your ass." White said gliding towards Nakamura. White charged but Nakamura kept a wide base. Guy slide back as White jumped forward with a strong swing that White blocked with his right arm. White dove for Guy's midsection. Guy pressed his weight on his left weight and White went with it. gliding across the ground as smooth as water Guy evaded Whites tackling attempt. The Kendo stick connected with the side of Whites head. White dropped to the ground. He came back up quickly with a round house kick to Guy. Guy responded with a fierce strike to White's attackingly leg instead of a block. White came back down not trying to keep his weight off the leg he just kicked with as his shin was just assaulted by a kendo stick.

Guy slid to the opposite side and with a smooth strike targeted his opposite knee bringing White immediately to his knees. Guy slid and with long swinging motion slapped the kendo stick in to White's stomach bending him over. The stick circled overhead and smacked across White's back. White dropped flat on his stomach and didn't even try to get up.

"Who fight next?" He said pointed the kendo stick at the rest of us. we each removed our footwear outside of the door unlike White.

"We aren't here to fight, I want you to join us."

"Beat me, ehm… I listen." He said struggling with English. "Psycho" Nate Schmidt stepped forward.

"I've got some experience with katana, I'll try my hand." He said bowing before entering the room. He held the Katana and bowed to his opponent as Guy returned the motion. Nate's stance almost mirrored Guys but his legs were closer together for speed forward. I realized that this facilitated faster speed forward. The wider stance gave more sideways movement. Nate sprinted forward, Guy side stepped striking Nate pulled his kendo stick close to his body to get best block possible. Guy struck and Nate blocked but Guy twisted his wrist flicking the kendo stick against Nate's wrist. Nate didn't drop the weapon which surprised me but his grip loosened slightly. Guys stick came around quickly striking up and throwing Nate's stick aside. Guy's kendo stick flew up to Nate's neck and stopped crossing it. Nate understood the reference and stepped back.

Jeremy White was on his feet by now.

"What the hell was that?"

"He show respect… I show respect." Jeremy swore.

"Who… fight me next?" Lisa stepped forward. He nodded tossing her a kendo stick.

"You have nothing against fighting me?" He stopped for a moment considering his words.

"I respect you enough… that you are threatening as them." He said pointing at the rest of us. She nodded. Instead of waiting for her to strike he leapt forward striking fiercely throwing her off balance. Guy struck away her kendo stick then launched a front kick to her abdomen. Knocking her back. She rolled back up to her feet but without her kendo stick. Guy swung and she ducked under it. she used the opportunity to charge at him closing the gap between them. Guy spun and used an aikido throw and followed it with arm bar. Lisa stopped struggling and tapped.

Guy popped up to his feet and helped Lisa to her feet. Tim stepped up but I stopped him. and turned to him.

"I'm going to give him a try… if I fail and you're it use your strengths… but try and surprise him… use something Nate's taught you." He nodded as I passed him. He tossed the Kendo stick at me and I caught it throwing it right back, he caught it and I used the moment to sprint at him for the tackle wrap up, then for a leg lock. I locked it in and pulled back winching my grip fast as possible. Then I felt the strike I was expecting across my hands then and unexpected one under my arm where I was unprotected. My grip loosened then his kendo stick came back around striking my left knee as he was getting up I fell down and winced resisting the urge to grab my knee in pain. Lisa stepped up to stop guy who withdrew his weapon.

"I don't need your help Ms. Williams." I said clearly trying to get up as naturally as I could but I couldn't put any weight on my left knee. 'Tiny' Tim Briggs stepped up, as the last person left. Guy tossed the kendo stick to him. Briggs charged making a hard swinging motion like a baseball bat looking to bust through any block given. When Guy did block the with all his power it flung the stick out of Brigg's hand too easily throwing guy off balance. Briggs crossed his legs then propelled his foot stepping behind his other with a side kick landing flush on Guy's chest. Guy stumbled back falling to one knee. With speed from Briggs that surprised me he was on him and rolling him over in a half nelson lying across the ground. He helped Guy up to his feet. Guy dropped his weight so his hips were under Brigg's and used a hip toss to throw Briggs. Brigg's grip didn't falter for a moment. Guy came tumbling back to the ground and this time he received a leg scissors across his abdomen. Guy Tapped twice on Brigg's leg and Briggs released his grip and got back up to his feet helping Guy up as well.

Once Guy was up to his feet he examined each of us and his eyes focused on me seeing that I was the leader.

"What you want." He said plainly.

"I want you to join us."

"I don't shoot guns." He said flatly.

"I don't need you to." I responded. I pulled a folder out of my bag I brought with me.

"This has all the information you need to know to join us or not join us. I can't give this out to anyone but I trust your honor that you will not let anyone else read it or tell anyone else about it.

"It's all in Japanese… dispose of it when you're finished with it."

"Where are you going?" he said heavily.

"Back to base, a number to reach me is on the final page."

**Mike's POV**

I sprayed on some Axe body spray, 'Phoenix' on me wondering if girls actually like this stuff. _What the heck am I doing?_ I can't believe I'm going over there. _Just gonna be another normal day. Wow you're so full of it. Dang it! I can't even convince myself!_ I used my military breathing to calm myself down. My heart rate slowed down with a conscious effort.

Any semblance of a normal day disappeared with Tanya came with Embry to pick me up. I tried to act casual.

"So Mike! What do you want to do today?" She asked glowing at me. I blinked and turned to Embry who was driving to give me a line. He was smirking. _That jerk! He's enjoying this whole thing!_

"Ugh… I don't know… I didn't have anything… particular... in mind." I said awkwardly.

"So what are you in to? What do you enjoy doing?" I looked back at her and her smile was still there but it didn't seem over the top, almost more believable.

"Well… I've always been a huge Star Wars fan… love drumming, really music at all. I enjoy martial arts."

"Martial Arts huh? Do you think you could kick Embry's ass here?" Embry scoffed at the idea. _Sure he's a tower of muscle but that doesn't mean he can fight… and why the heck is he that ripped anyway? Is there any legitimate reason for being in that good of shape?_

"If I needed to… I do know how to… I guess..." I said noncommittally. Embry was smirking now. I was slightly offended. _I guess he like everyone else just underestimates me._ It was different with Embry though. I mean he really did look like he could kick the crap out of me. It wasn't like that most times. Every popular kid would say _'Mike can't beat me up, he's fat he couldn't catch me, I could kick his butt.' _It frustrated me beyond reason. I could kick the living crap out of them, every single person who said that. And everyone would laugh along with them. I clinched my fists in anger.

"Is everything okay Mike?" Tanya asked from behind me. _she couldn't have seen that could she? _I forced myself to relax and answered.

"No… nothing."

**Embry's POV**

"Yeah I'll be right back, just want to check something quick." I called back at Mike in the other room.

_"Hun…  
I want to meet you soo much… I  
can't take it. I want to get to  
know you so much better than  
I already do. I want to feel your  
warm hands all over my body I  
don't know when we're going to  
but I want to see you sooner than  
later.  
D"_

I breathed deeply in and out knowing that this was another e-mail not too different from the ones we've been sending for the last month.

_"D…  
I know I want to meet you too. If  
it would make you feel better we  
could trade pictures or something.  
I would like to talk to you on the  
phone, to hear your voice… I  
don't know maybe something. But  
yes I want to meet you too.  
Embry" _

_ She couldn't possibly think I'm a monster could she? She saved me after all?_ I was curious what she looked like. I had some blurry ideas but nothing concrete. I sighed pushing my chair away from the computer to join them in the other room.

"I bet you could take Embry." Tanya goaded. Mike shrugged and I laughed. His eyes turned to me in anger immediately. _Why are you laughing, this kid could have wiped the floors without before you became a wolf._

"You find it funny Embry? You think I wouldn't stand a chance?" Mike said standing up and facing me.

"Nah… I mean, come on… let's just play some guitar hero and call it good."

_"Just like everyone else…"_ He said under his breath.

"What was that?"

"I said you're just like everyone else, you don't think I could possibly hurt you." Mike said facing me.

"It's because you can't… you want to try and prove it go ahead, let's go outside."

"Fine!" Mike said jumping up.

**Tanya's POV**

Rosalie glided down the stairs. Stopping next to me.

"Mike's really going to try this?"

"Yeah he is… It's kind of hot…" Rosalie snorted facing me.

"Oh come on, don't even try and tell me you don't want to watch." Rosalie maintained her disapproving look.

"Right… well I'll be out watching." I made my way out and the fighting had already started. Embry wasn't even attacking, he was barely defending. Mike was striking fiercely. Embry blocked a round kick and a side kick but shook his arm like it stung. Mike came around with another round kick which Embry wisely avoided. Mike was smiling. His spinning leg came back around as a log kick hitting Embry square on the side dropping him down until he was face to face with Mike. Mike planted his leg again then spun jumping through the air with an inside axe kick to an outside axe kick. Embry avoided the first but the second one caught him square on the jaw. Embry staggered back and then forward in to a step behind side kick that dropped him on his ass. Embry was on his feet in an instant and flying back at Mike. Emmett was behind him grabbing him to stop him almost immediately. I sighed at the crisis that was narrowly averted. Mike rolled back his shoulders and took a deep breath slowing his heart rate down.

"Oh come on Rosalie just try and tell me that wasn't hot." I said quietly to Rosalie who was behind me.

"Yeah… be careful when you jump him… he's slightly more human than you."

**Sorry about the delay on the chapter, last week and weekend was crazy, so I didn't end up posting yester-week. It's also getting difficult for me to finish this chapters because semi-romantic stuff is taking longer and longer to write every week, Thanks for the reviewers who stick with me through all this. Remember Knucks, high fives, rolls of twenty dollar bills, and reviews. Catch you on the Flip Side.**


	14. Author's note and PSA

**Disclaimer: This is not a chapter, I am not Stephenie Meyer...  
**

**Disclaimer Deuce: this... is... SPARTA! *kicks someone in to hole***

**_First and foremost I'd like to apologize for not keeping my timetable, I've got a rough Idea of exactly when I want to update everything. I missed a week because well I was partying it up, I'm not sorry I partied it up, I'm sorry that a magical chapter fairy didn't post on my behalf. "Fix you" is the chapter I've been trying to post since last thursday, currently I'm working on a chapter for my ONE story not twilight related... throw all the tomatoes you want, it'll be epic! I hope to be back on Schedule updating A story next thursday, but right now I'm leaning towards a Volturi update, thanks for the patience, and now for your public service announcement. _  
**

if you're an author and have been struggling like me to post here is a way to get around the system, you still can't change the property page which hopefully FF will get to fixing themselves too.

the first thing you have to do is go to add a new chapter (the  
message of the error will appear) but you have to focus on the link that would  
be something like this: login . fanfiction . net/story/story_edit_property .  
php?storyid=NUMBERHERE (without the spaces and NUMBERHERE refers to your story  
id number)

Well, the trick is simple. You have to change the part of the link which has:  
'story_edit_property' to 'story_edit_content' So your link should be something  
like this: login . fanfiction . net/story/story_edit_content .  
php?storyid=NUMBERHERE (without the spaces and NUMBERHERE refers to your story  
id number)

thanks to don'tcallmeLeeLee for helping me post.

Catch you on the flip side, and "take care, and jel your hair" 


	15. Karma

**Disclaimer: so… umm…. Yeah… not Stephenie Meyer**

**Disclaimer Deuce: Something completely unrelated but awesome: "Vampire Killer" song**

**Mike's POV**

I stared up at my ceiling. My brother's snoring the only company I had. It had never bugged me. I missed Tanya. It had only been a week since I saw her but it was too long for my liking. I didn't have her e-mail address. I wouldn't ask for it either. I didn't want to seem desperate. _Seem Desperate? You have any idea how obvious it must be to the Cullens? To Tanya? She's probably seen plenty of people better looking and more interesting than you. Plus you're a sophomore, dating a college student? Yeah right, you've never even had a girlfriend. And you have no clue what the heck even to make of what happened with Rosalie._ I blinked a couple times breathing in and out slowly.

_She's from Alaska, it's never going to work. She just happens to be going to the U of M. Even that is a good what, hour and a half away? Then she'll disappear back to Alaska. I can't make any commitments. 'Yeah, mom I want to visit Alaska.' 'Why Mike?' 'I think there's a girl that likes me there… and well I've got a crush on her too.' That's a joke. Like it'd work out, and even if it did, would I go see her in Alaska all the time? Where would the money come from? Could I really expect her to travel over an entire other country just to see me? I guess it's all just a game to her._

I couldn't see a single way this could possibly work out between us. As much as it hurt to say it, as beautiful as she was. It appeared there was no hope. My heart tightened inside of my chest at the thought. I couldn't keep ignoring it hoping the truth would turn in to lies. It's just how it was. I didn't want to face it but that didn't make it any less true.

I ran my fingers cross my face trying to look at the situation from any angle I hadn't already. I'd spent hours trying to find a way around what I knew was the flat truth. Us was impossible. Maybe if we were five years older or ten, where I could go where I wanted to. I closed my eyes and tried to force the thoughts to go away, and soon the embrace of sleep overtook me.

"**Tiny" Tim Brigg's POV**

"You know, I think it's kind of funny that we beat the shit out of each other the first time we met, and now we're sparring partners." Nate Schmidt joked with me.

"Well Grand masta' Elzam is… well he's him… I'd probably hold back against Lisa Williams… and Jeremy White is too busy ogling at Williams…"

"Ahh shucks you won't hold back against me? I'll take that as a sign of respect." I shrugged.

"Nah, I just have no problem beating you to a pulp." I laughed.

"Ahh shucks, I never knew you felt that way too." Nate joked back at me before throwing a kick I blocked away.

"Come on Lisa! Just one date!" I heard and motioned my head over by Jeremy White, our sniper who was very interested in Lisa Williams. I didn't particularly blame him but it was still annoying to hear when we were sparring.

"Not a chance in hell! Get back to practice!" Lisa Williams yelled back at Jeremy White. She said moving back to her bag. She launched combinations Jeremy returned to his books slightly dejected. Commander Elzam stepped in to the room and we all turned to face him.

"Our team is complete." Commander Elzam explained. A moment Guy Nakamura stepped in behind him. Elzam turned to him.

"These are our basic fighting area. You've already met the team. I'll be in my office going over reports if you need anything." Elzam said before leaving. I watched out of the corner of my eye as Guy Nakamura slowly unsheathed his blade. In a flurry of quick movements he swung his blade with grace and strength in motion. I turned my attention back to Nate putting my arms up in preparation.

"Again?" I asked he nodded before charging.

**Mike's POV**

Here I was on Embry's couch again. This time it was a different story. I'd been reading reviews online about this game that was supposed to be a great multiplayer RPG. I put the game in Embry's Play station 2. Jasper sat down on the other side of Embry. The game opened with an awesome song and video opening forcing us to sit through it.

"I wonder what that song is called." I asked. Jasper had returned with a laptop.

"It's called Karma, by Bump of chicken." Jasper grabbed his guitar and was looking at his laptop while the story started. It was terribly confusing with all its talk of "fonons" and "seventh fonoths" I tried to follow but my attention was also on Jasper who was staring at his laptop and playing guitar. Embry was next to me saying if I wasn't paying attention he'd Pilot then I would have to RIO. _No way man, You're gonna be the Goose to my maverick, besides you're too tall to pass as Maverick anyhow. _I sighed and went back to playing the game.

**Rosalie's POV**

"Wait what do you mean he's there right now? Why?" Tanya asked in frustration.

"I mean…" I said before leaning into the room and looking at Mike.

"That I'm looking at him right now."

"Bitch."

"Oh is that jealousy I detect?"

"You're the one who told me I can't be down there this weekend, what the heck else am I going to do when I'm not seducing anyone else?"

"Ooh Tanya, are you going monogamous?" I teased.

"I just haven't found anyone who interests me more than this Mike kid." My temper flared a bit.

"He's not just going to be another fling for you, I swear I'll kill you."

"Who's jealous now?"

"I'm serious… I accidently was his first kiss." I said regretting it almost immediately. I heard a fit of laughter.

"Accidently? Did his lips catch yours while you were falling?"

"No, I mean I meant to kiss him but I didn't know he'd never been kissed… I didn't mean to."

"Wait, you kissed him? No kidding? So that's why he's so smitten with you."

"What do you mean, I saw how he looked at you he obviously liked you." I argued with her.

"Are you kidding? I think he was considering asking for your permission to spend time with me." Tanya laughed.

"But seriously, why is he there now?" I shrugged then realized she couldn't see it and laughed quietly to myself

"I guess he has made some friends here." I said leaning against the wall just far enough so I could see him through a couple rooms.

"If you want to talk dirty to him I could always hand him my cell… probably would give him a heart attack." I laughed.

"Ha ha Rose." Tanya said humorlessly.

"Why didn't you just give him your phone number or e-mail address?" I asked honestly.

"I didn't want to seem desperate." I laughed at the statement.

"Really? You're going to try and get away with that?" I laughed then coughed bullshit.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you're really going to try and convince me that the reason why you haven't given his number is because you don't want to look too attracted to him? Too weak? What?"

"I didn't know… he seemed more interested in you."

"Do you honestly believe that?" I asked. She sighed.

"I didn't know… I haven't really had feelings for anyone besides Edward in a while… I just wasn't sure what to do, or what I wanted to do." It was hard for me to understand at first. Then it all started to make sense.

"Well you can't live with one leg in the door and one out. You have to make a choice now."

"Yes I know…" she paused for a moment I'm sure thinking about the large decision. I leaned in to the room noticing that even now Mike was laughing and having a good time with Jasper and Embry. _He has a charisma about him; it's why people circle around him._ I never would have even noticed with how he acted at school. He possessed a great ability to make people laugh and be around him.

"I'll do it… Enough is enough. I'm committed to doing this now." Tanya said firmly.

"What about the law?

"I will not break the law. I will hide it from him. I will hide my secret forever."

"**Psycho" Nate Schmidt POV**

I'd decided it would be in my best interest to watch Guy Nakamura and observe him. He had the most to teach me. On his back at all times was a bow and his Katana at his hip.

"So what? You're good with a pointy weapon, congradu-fucking lations" Jeremy said to Guy.

"But can you do this?" He asked before turning, leveling his gun at the target and shooting five bulls' eyes before turning back to Guy. Guy didn't say a word pulling his bow out. He looked Jeremy white in the eye for a moment and White stepped back. In one fluid motion he pulled the draw string back and fired, straight in to the target… _Bull's eye._

"**Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

"Your target "Nos I" is being tracked, it's shaky but we have him traveling west across the states."

"Nos I?"

"Nosferatu one"

"I see… so what new Intel on Vampires do you have for me?" I asked

"None… We believe high enough voltage shocks will disable them. The tasers required are already on site."

"I knew this already… you're sending my team which hasn't even been fully briefed and read all the material I've read in to the field, against a vampire? I can't condone this it's dangerous and stupid."

"Quite frankly it doesn't matter if you condone it or not, we need the vampire for research and you've been ordered to track down and take this vampire in."

"Wait, take the vampire in? Not even kill him?" I asked

"We can't learn more about them and how to kill them if you kill them, besides we don't know if it's possible to kill them yet."

"And you expect me to just go in without enough knowledge and capture a vampire? Do you think this is some kind of game?"

"The necessary restraints will be given to you. And yes, I expect you to do it, it's your job. No one said it'd be safe. I thought the legend that you are you would simply do this easily. Too much for you?"

"If you're trying to bade me in to doing something stupid you should know by now it won't work."

"Good… then pack up your team and get the damn job done."

**Embry's POV**

Tonight was the night. I was nervous. _Why am I nervous?_ I couldn't believe I was finally going to talk to D for the first time. She was going to call me tonight. I forced myself to breathe deeply. She wouldn't give me her phone number. She was so guarded. It offended me slightly. I tried to be understanding but eventually I just felt like she didn't trust me. I couldn't shake the feeling deep in the pit of my stomach. She called me one of her closest friends and she still hadn't let me see a picture of her. She said that she told me things that she'd never tell anyone else but she wouldn't give me her address. I didn't understand how the fact that I lived far away made me any more dangerous than the guy down two levels from her apartment who DID know where she lived. I forced myself not to let it bug me.

_She trusts you… she wants to date you… she just hasn't said it yet._ I repeated to myself. Every time I brought it up it was a fight. I didn't like fighting with her. I heard my phone ringing and reached down looking at the number. _Blocked. _She wouldn't give me her number to call her either, she needed to call me.

"Hello?"

"Hi Embry…" she said with an extremely southern accent.

"D, I presume." I said.

"Yes… I like your voice… a lot." She said. I smiled.

"Well thanks…"

"It's very attractive."

"Uh… thanks." I said awkwardly. It was weird talking to her for the first time. We continued to talk about this and that. Dancing around the topic I actually wanted to talk about. Finally I got up the courage.

"So when will I finally get to see a picture of you?"

"Are we going to have this conversation?"

"I think we should." I said plainly.

"Why? I think I've made myself clear."

"So a random guy who has done nothing more than attending the same college as you gets to see you, meet, you, talk to you… A guy, ANY GUY, who could just be a psychopath in the making, but me… a guy you've been talking with all your free time doesn't get to see a picture of you? I don't get to know where I can mail your wallet back? I don't understand I get that you might be worried about meeting some random guy online… but I'm not some random guy anymore… We've been talking for a long time and told a lot about ourselves that we haven't told other people… so why? Why can't I know your cell phone number? Does the fact that I use a computer make me untrustworthy?" I explained my rational argument.

"Well if that's how you feel maybe you should find someone else!" She yelled and I heard the click of the phone going dead. Then I realized something… _Women aren't rational_

**I really like the last line, I believe it could be a life lesson. But any who I'm back to updating this story, I don't know which story I'm updating next but it could be either one, depends what strikes me for inspiration. Thanks to the reviewers who have stuck with me, remember to give reviews, high fives, knucks, rolls of twenty dollar bills, and ideas. Thanks for reading. Catch ya on the flip side.**


	16. So Long, Self

**Disclaimer: Dang I gotta this posted before I miss it completely this weekend. Happy Easter, and I'm still not Stephenie Meyer.**

**Disclaimer Deuce: let me introduce myself to you… this is who I am… no more no less.**

**Mr. Black's POV**

"Mr. Black? Interesting…"

"Yes 'Havik' if that's your name."

"If it's my name or not isn't your concern. Your concern is my pay and my information."

"What Information is that?"

"The team I'm _working _with." He said short. He didn't give anything away about his disposition.

"That information is classified."

"Spare me your bull shit. If you want me to work with them it'll be another ten million on the top, plus the fifteen for the live capture."

"You're being awfully generous with my money Havok."

"It's not like the U.S. Government has a lack of it." _How the hell does he know that?_

"So you say. But what does that have to do with me?" I countered.

"You are government. I can hear the loathing in your voice." I didn't say anything.

"So we've got twenty five million for the tracking a vampire down, Ten for working with your people, fifteen for live capture." I laughed theatrically.

"Bring it down to forty million and we'll have a deal." I heard a dark laugh.

"Yeah… no. fifty million and that's what you're paying, no negotiations." I clenched my fist in anger but knew there was no other way. I couldn't allow the team to be killed by their first vampire encounter.

"Fine."

"**Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

"Today we're hunting a vampire."

"And this is different from any other day… how?" Williams asked.

"Because we're having a guided tour to one." I explained.

"I don't trust this." "Psycho" Nate Schmidt said.

"Ahh come on, I thought you were supposed to be crazy and all that shit." White goaded. Schmidt shrugged.

"I'm not stupid, what's he have to gain helping us."

"From what I've heard, an awful lot of money."

"That's comforting." 'Tiny' Tim Briggs said. I heard a knock on the outside door. The door opened and with two silent steps he was here.

He said nothing. Drenched from the down pour outside. He wore a black trench coat made of some kind of material that looked unfamiliar to me. The coat was checkered with a dull black and a darker black that reflected light. His boots, pants and inner jacket held the same pattern, with his jacket zipped up to the top of his neck. He wore black leather gloves and to top it all off black sun glasses. _It's pitch black and down pouring outside, why the hell is he wearing sun glasses? _

His skin was unnaturally white, but unlike what I'd seen before in pale skinned people I'd met, it wasn't bright. It didn't reflect the light of the room, it was almost as if the light disappeared from his face. He had blond hair that looked like the color had been drained out. He looked to be in his late forties but I couldn't tell, something seemed off about him. My attention returned to his glasses, the rest could be explained by what was necessity of his work or the best material for what he did. He stood silently not saying a word. I could feel his eyes burning in to me even though I couldn't see them.

"So what's with the glasses iceman?" Nate Schmidt called. He didn't turn his attention from me or even acknowledge Nate Schmidt's question. I waited for his response, something that told me more than him that he liked the color black. He gave nothing up.

"I'm Havik." He said neutrally. I didn't introduce myself. It didn't seem to bother him in the least.

"It is time to go." He said before turning and leaving. I nodded to my team and they grabbed their bags and followed. Guy Nakamura stayed back. I walked to him.

"I don't trust him." He said in shaky English. He'd been working very hard to learn English and had been. I nodded. To make things easier for Guy we'd all been trying to talk slower, but not patronizingly so. He understood English well but speaking it was difficult. I leaned closer to him.

"I don't either. Stay alert." I said simply to him. He looked me in the eye and nodded. I looked outside in to the rain where Havik was standing. He was staring at me with a smirk on his face. He knew what we were saying. I had no clue how… but he knew.

**Tanya's POV**

I dialed Mike Iverson's number he gave me and waited. I tapped my foot impatiently and I heard the click of the phone.

"Hello?" I was taken aback for a moment.

"Hi… Is Mike there?"

"He's playing music with his brothers and cousin… May I ask who this is?"

"This is Tanya."

"It's great to hear from you! Please come over, They should be finishing up soon." She said happily but at the same time tiredly.

"Ah… okay."

"I'm on my way."

"Okay, bye!" I drove over there wondering why his mother seemed so tired at seven P.M. I didn't think she worked Saturdays. _Maybe she was this weekend._ I heard music from the Chicken barn. I heard the song quiet down.

"Last song?" I heard Mike's brother Jed ask. I opened the door and stepped it looking towards Mike. I could see the surprise in his face but also the tiredness.

"So Long Self?" Mike oldest brother Alex asked. Mike counted down and started the beat with their cousin on the guitar, it had a nice groove to it. I realized Alex didn't have his guitar on instead he was at the mic. His brother grabbed the mic bouncing with the music.

"Well if I come across a little bit distant  
it's just because I am  
things just seem to feel a little bit different  
you understand  
believe it or not but life is not apparently  
about me anyway.  
but I have met the one who really is worthy  
so let me say." I saw Mike start singing with his brother on the Chorous

"So long, self  
Well, it's been fun, but I have found somebody else  
So long, self  
there's just no room for two  
so you are gonna have to move.  
So long, self  
don't take this wrong but you are wrong for me, farewell  
oh well, goodbye, don't cry  
So long, self."  
"Hey Mike you got the next verse?" Alex called out. Mike nodded.

"Stop right there because I know what you're thinking  
but no we can't be friends  
and even though I know your heart is breaking  
this has to end  
and come to think of it the blame for all of this  
simply falls on me  
for wanting something more in life than all of this  
can't you see?" Mike finished singing while drumming. His drumming suffered a bit but not so much that it wasn't still impressive. Alex took over singing again.

"So long, self  
Well, it's been fun, but I have found somebody else  
So long, self  
there's just no room for two  
so you are gonna have to move.  
So long, self  
don't take this wrong but you are wrong for me, farewell  
oh well, goodbye, don't cry  
So long, self." They broke to the bridge.

"Don't feel so bad (Don't feel so bad)  
there'll be better days (there'll be better days)  
don't go away mad (but by all means)  
Just go away, go away." I felt it building in to a guitar solo. Mike's cousin soloed and went back in to the chorus.

"So long, self  
Well, it's been fun, but I have found somebody else  
So long, self  
there's just no room for two  
so you are gonna have to move.  
So long, self  
don't take this wrong but you are wrong for me, farewell  
oh well, goodbye, don't cry  
So long, self." I felt the song coming to an end.

"Farewell goodbye  
oh oh so long self  
farewell goodbye  
oh oh so long self  
farewell goodbye  
oh oh so long self  
farewell goodbye  
oh oh so long self  
farewell goodbye  
oh oh so long self  
farewell goodbye  
oh oh so long self." They finished the song and Mike got up off the drum set with a tired smile. He made his way over to me and awkwardly said hello. No hug, no handshake. This kid was pretty awkward. _I'd picked up that he wasn't comfortable with physical contact with people he didn't know that well but he knew me pretty well didn't he?_ I wanted to know. He climbed in to the Cullen-mobile. He seemed unsure of himself. It was a crazy transformation… on the drum set he oozed confidence it radiated off of him but now he was unsure and afraid, as if I had somehow changed in that time.

"Mike… why are you uncomfortable?"

"Well… I don't know… it's just weird. And I don't want to do anything wrong." We pulled up to the house.

"Then give me a hug." She said climbing out of the car. He gulped and blushed profusely. It was kind of cute. He stood awkwardly leaning his weight back and forth in one cold night of April. I smiled. It was different being attracted to someone younger. I hadn't heard anything from him but from what the Cullens said, he had it pretty damn rough at school. _Maybe that's why he's so timid around me?_ I smiled as I thought of something. I turned so I was sideways to him and my shoulder out to him.

"Mike… do that jump spinning double kick over my shoulder that you showed me.."

"You mean the Tornado kick?" I smiled at his response.

"Yes that one… Do that over my shoulder."

"Are you sure?" He asked me skeptically.

"I know you can do it. Rosalie said she saw you practice it with your black belt partner. And I trust you." It did help that even if he hit me he wouldn't possibly hurt me, plus I could move if I needed to make him look good. He nodded moving in to position. He shoulders were tight. He breathed in lifting his shoulders then dropped them relaxing his body. He lowered himself in to his stance bringing him eye to eye with me. He jumped and spun through the air flying at me with both legs spinning almost gracefully and coming down with a hard axe type kick easily over my shoulder. He landed and stepped back in to a normal standing position.

"I think that's kind of hot how you can do that." I smiled. He blushed bright red. His scent grew even stronger and the blushing made him smell even better. _Oh damn it. _I thought. I took another step closer to him. He still stood confidently, but was bright red. I took another step closer to him leaving less than a foot between us. I stared right in to his eyes and he dared not look away. I could hear his heart rate skyrocket. His breath got shallow then he slowed down his breathing. He tried to hide how nervous he was and then he just stepped forward and hugged me. His arms wrapped around me gently. I was surprised how soft his embrace was. It seemed like he was worried I'd get hurt, or disappear. I returned the hug and put my head on his shoulder with a big smile. I stopped breathing momentarily as his scent was becoming overwhelming he was really warm. His body was still hot from drumming and he warmed my jacket up heating me to my core. I squeezed him tightly, but not any more than I should be able to. His heart beat relaxed. I breathed with his heartbeat. _I could get used to this. What's this? The world famous Succubus has gone soft? Maybe I have._ I thought as I led Mike back to the Cullen's house. Jasper was sitting in the living room playing his guitar, Embry down stairs playing the drum set. Jasper was playing the Theme from Top Gun.

"Huh… that's a cool song… it's kind of familiar." I said to Jasper.

"It's the theme from Top Gun." Mike nodded.

"Huh… I've never seen that movie." Alice gasped next to Jasper.

"You've never seen it? That's a travesty! An epic fail! A slight against God!" I turned to Alice and blinked.

"What… too much?" I nodded. Mike smiled and he stood awkwardly by the couch and chair. Alice ran and jumped on to the chair, as graceful as a ballerina, and as mature as a six year old. I glared at her and she stuck her tongue out at me. Mike wasn't sure where he was supposed to sit. _Mike, you think way too much about everything._ He over analyzed everything. It made him very knowledgeable about little things, but thought everything through and over way too much.

"Come on Mike let's sit down." I said pulling him towards the couch."

**"Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

"The bitch will be bait." I put an arm out to stop Williams from trying to attack Havik in the jeep. We didn't give our names, granted he could have come up with a nicer name. He had resorted to calling Guy "Chang" calling Schmidt "Little fuck" and Briggs "Big fuck" White he just called "Fuck" and me, well he called me "Nazi fuck" for having blond hair. I leaned closer to Williams.

"Don't let him get under your skin, he's trying to find out more about us, the fact is he probably can hear me right now." She looked back at me and nodded. It'd been a long time of travel to get ahead of the vampire, and on his path. We finally got out of the jeep with all the tools we had. At the end of the alley there was a small turn away from there. It was completely hidden but a vampire could definitely smell Williams bleeding. Much to Havik's disapproval we set up live wires to catch the vampire as a last resort if he got past Havik. He scoffed at the very idea. Lisa was really worried, she wouldn't say it, she tried not to show it, but she was playing bait unarmed for a vampire… not exactly the best position. I stopped her from pacing and grabbed both her shoulders.

"I swear to you I will not let anything happen to you. We've all got rounds for this. Our people had come up with electrical stringed bullets that wouldn't pierce the skin but at least it'd bring those blood sucking bastards down. All of us were aimed at Lisa waiting for some sign. Havik stood next to us laughing.

"He won't get anywhere near her, I wouldn't get my full cut if she was hurt." He said rolling his eyes. It didn't make me any more comfortable… I wanted to be there instead of her.

**Mike's POV**

"Oh shit they're close, I'm getting a hard on." I blinked. _What the hell? _I had managed to stay awake the whole movie even if my full attention wasn't on it. It couldn't be helped. I looked down and saw the reason why. Cuddled up to me with her head against my chest was Tanya. I had managed to wrap my arm around her but that was all I'd done. I knew I was grinning like an idiot but I didn't care.

_Is she sleeping?_ I wondered as I leaned closer taking in the scent of her curling hair. It was something between head and blonde. _Strawberry blonde? Why the hell am I thinking about this during the biggest part of the movie?_ I thought still smiling.

"You're still dangerous… You can be my wingman any time."

"Bull shit… you can be mine." Alice started cheering at the television. I stifled a laugh trying to keep from disturbing Tanya. The credit's started rolling.

"It's okay to laugh at Alice… everyone does it." Tanya said without moving.

"Oh I'm sorry I thought you were asleep."

"Nope I'm just comfortable… maybe I'll stick here for a couple more hours." I shrugged.

"I could think of worse things to do." I said. Tanya laughed a bit.

"Like what?" She asked

"Like anything that involves me being active." I said with a yawn.

"I was wondering about that, why are you so tired anyway?" She asked sitting up. I started yawning again then covered my eyes. I was getting tears in my eyes from all this yawning. I cleaned my eyes.

"I'm sorry… it's why I couldn't stay out past nine yesterday. I was up at four thirty for work."

"What could you possibly need to do at four thirty in the morning?"

"Well I had to eat breakfast then… but then I had to set up an auction, work an auction and clean up from an auction. We didn't get done till five pm." I said stifling a yawn.

"I'm assuming your mom worked too?" Tanya asked.

"Yes, we all do, it's our family business." I tried to say causally.

"Oh! Oh! Do you auction?" Alice asked excitedly.

"Not willingly." I said truthfully.

"Why not?" Tanya asked sitting up.

"My dad has been doing it for nearly three decades, my older brother went to school for it and my oldest brother has been auctioning for roughly five years… I don't even come close to comparing…"

"If you don't auction what do you do?"

"Clerk, Cashier, food service, set up, tear down, ringing, and customer service…" I listed.

"So that's why you're so tired… sorry for dragging you out here." Tanya said. I shook my head.

"No I wanted to come out."

"At least you get to sleep in tomorrow." She said trying to be positive. I chuckled.

"What?"

"I don't get to sleep in tomorrow, I'm drumming at church tomorrow for nine a.m. mass."

"Wow… that kind of sucks."

"Not too much I enjoy it." I said honestly.

"Well we should get up and get you home." She said. Neither one of us moved. We waited for a while then she finally said.

"What you expected me to get up first?" She said next to me.

"**Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

I hadn't trusted Havik from the moment I saw him but I had to put my trust in his plan. I swear if Lisa died I would personally put a bullet in his head, without a second thought. With a gust of wind a vampire stopped in the alley. We didn't make a sound. Reports showed their hearing was very good. Instead we waited for him to get in to position, there was one problem with the plan, if he got suspicious he could just walk away right now, or worse attack us before we're ready. I hadn't told Havik about that lapse in his judgment but I was hoping he had a backup plan.

The vampire turned his back to the alley. _He must have a bad feeling about this… or something?_ Havik stood up next to me. He jumped across the alley from the roof to the other building planting a foot on it and flipping down to the ground behind the vampire.

A smile appeared at the corner of Havik's face. It started to spread. Havik rolled back his shoulders and cracked his neck in both directions then twisted his hips back and forth with a crack in either direction. _Finally we'll see what he really is. _The vampire charged with a punch. The punch was coming fast but he didn't seem in any real rush to move. In a blur of movement he dodged with his whole upper body. The vampire was extended past his body. Havik wrapped his arms around the vampires midsection flipping the vampire over his hip on to the ground. The vampire jumped back to his feet. The vampire threw a flurry of punches which Havik dodged with his body and midsection. It was sick, the vampire was just being toyed with. The closest thing I could relate it to was the matrix. Havik countered a strike and barely moved the vampire. The Vampire seemed confused until he realized that Havik wasn't nearly as strong as him. The flurry of movement my eyes were having trouble following. Havik was growing complacent.

_What the hell is he? Is he a vampire?_ I thought before I saw the vampire land a single strike on Havik's face knocking his glasses off. Then I saw it. blood trickling from Havik's lip. I could almost feel Havik's anger. His eyes were a bright burning red. I saw something on his arms. Almost a dark mist of something. Havik's palm of his right hand reinforced by his left hand struck out in a straight strike to the vampire's torso in what should have been a weak strike but the vampire was sent flying twenty feet in to a brick wall. But he didn't fall down from it he made his own indentation he sat in. Havik pulled a pair of sunglasses from inside of his trench coat and put them on. He looked up at us the darkness disappearing from his hands. There was no denying he wasn't a vampire… but what he was I didn't know.

**Tanya's POV**

We were on our way back to Mike's house. We had talked about this and that but it was time for the night to end. I had thoroughly enjoyed it. Mike was nervous. It was cute.

"Umm… do… well… do you want me to kiss you?" he asked awkwardly. I smiled big. _The obvious answer is yes… geez some guys just don't get it._

"I don't know… maybe." I said coyly smiling at him.

"It's up to you… you know… if you want to I guess." I said with a smile. He was breathing short then he calmed down. His heart rate slowed down. He started to lean in. I closed my eyes and leaned closer to him. I could feel his body heat, smell his magnificent blood. _Hot damn this is harder than I thought._ I waited for a moment then I heard the door opening and opened my eyes to see Mike with a shit eating grin on his face as he was getting out of the car. _Wait what! He didn't kiss me… what!_ I was angry but couldn't keep myself from smiling either.

"I'd hate to kiss a woman who didn't want me to." He said.

"Goodnight Tanya."

"Goodnight Mike." I said angrily. He closed the door and I was left brooding. _Never in all my life has anyone done that to me! How dare he!_ I was angry but couldn't look it was too busy smiling from ear to ear. _Damn it!_

"**Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

"Subject "I" has been detained and has begun the preliminary studies of his strengths and weaknesses." I said in to the recorded.

"I?" White asked.

"One… the first. We'll get more until we know everything we need to. Congratulations. We've taken the first step to eradicating the Vampire plague."

**Tanya's POV**

"Tanya why are you so mad?" Alice asked. Jasper, Alice, Rosalie, and Emmett had greeted me.

"That jerk didn't kiss me!" I said angrily.

"I told you he wouldn't he's not as fast as you're used to… you'd be his first kiss if I didn't… well you know, kiss him" Rosalie said.

"No it's not that… I did my thing you know." I explained.

"You played coy trying to force him in to the first move." Emmett rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, well that jerk calmed down and closed his eyes and leaned in to kiss me and I did the same thing… but he opened the door and got out of the car before our lips met!" I said yelling by the time I was at the end of it. I heard loud laughing from Emmett and Jasper. Emmett gave Jasper a high five and Embry walked in laughing as well.

"That guy is totally my hero." Embry said bent over laughing.

"I could kill you…" I growled at Embry. I finally looked over at Alice and Rosalie who were trying not to laugh.

"Oh come on you kind of had it coming!" Rosalie smiled.

"I blame this completely on you!" I said before storming out of the house. Once I calmed down I admired the beautiful April night. _Soon… Soon Mike…_

** Hope you enjoyed the chapter, I enjoyed writing it! Remember all questions like 'Who the crap is 'Havik' are welcomed. Thanks for reading it, remember to review, give knucks, rolls of twenty dollar bills and high fives. Have a happy Easter, Catch you on the flip side.**


	17. Everything Sucks

**Disclaimer: I'm not Stephenie Meyer because she'd not be having these comp problems that she couldn't afford to fix professionally.**

**Disclaimer Deuce: Sixto Sounds… Look them up**

"**Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

I stared down at my paper work. We'd been studying "I" for days now just observing him and his weaknesses. Even prolonged electric shocks did no real damage to him, he was immune to the coldest temperature we could expose him to him but a great discovery was that extremely high temperatures did affect the vampire, burned his skin. We could cut right through him with a torch. I kept reading the notes we'd gathered. Prolonged exposure to sun was harmful but it was only after hours of exposure. _Hell some humans get sunburned faster than that. _I thought to myself. From everything we could gather the most painful way to hurt them was magnifying the sun in to the vampire.

Everyone besides Guy and me had been tracking down another vampire lead. We needed more test subjects to properly test variations in vampires, especially in the area of how they think, fight, and try to escape. Guy's main focus was the fluidity of his English but I put him through the hell to get him in to military shape. He never once complained, he wasn't a marathon runner. It was part of the reason why I decided he should stay back. He had by far the least military training. Six hours a day he worked on linguistics, six on training and the rest on daily functions. I didn't want to run him too hard in to the ground which was a very strong possibility.

I quickly found out he'd work until he couldn't walk and not complain about it, even to the point of passing out during a workout. It was a stupid mistake, there was no reason He would ever need to work out for five hours straight. _It was my mistake not his._ I said to myself. Whereas every other member of my team was training for war, hunting vampires, or a collegiate wrestler for the past couple years he was not. He was just a civilian who trained under his father and his grandfather.

He had stayed abstinent about not using a gun which annoyed Jeremy White but I understood he had his own code. It didn't bother me since a gun worked just as well on a vampire as a bow, which was to say, not at all. Jeremy White took it to be a blatant disobedience to me who told him to learn how to shoot a gun. I took it as upholding his family way. His family way is what got him here in the first place, and it was that sense of hard work and dedication that I needed here. Jeremy could make shots from a mile away. I was the next best shot on the team, I had basic sniper training but I didn't even compare to Jeremy, we were both Marksmen at close range, 'Psycho' Nate Schmidt was next best shot on the team. 'Tiny' Tim Briggs was coming around and Guy was a great shot with a bow.

It was always difficult teaching Guy because he came from a completely different back ground of fighting, whereas everyone else had a similar fighting style his was based on Japanese Martial arts, and the Bushido code. It wasn't like he was impossible to work with either though. He would see things and change, but there were some things like the bow he would not let go of, and I respected him for that.

I stared at Subject I as he wreathed in pain. To most this would be inhumane, torture, blah blah fucking blah. They were just cowards, too afraid to see what needed to be done to protect our world. The vampires were a plague, and they needed to be purged, and I understood most people didn't have the stomach for it. I did. No matter what it took I would lead the charge against this outbreak of monsters.

White was the only member of the team who had access to the observation room for assessment of procurement methods. Which we both knew was simply the torture chamber. He was invaluable in assessment. He was a part of black ops, he knew the difference between what was necessary, and what was needed to be known. Eventually the whole team needed to get involved with these sessions but for now White would be the only one with access. I'd already laid out that Lisa Williams would be the next person I pulled in, she'd be the next most understanding about the torture, she knew what these beasts were capable of and the war we'd need to fight to beat them. We couldn't play with little kid gloves. After Williams had came in to the fold Nate Schmidt would be next. He was a soldier, he'd understand what needed to be done. I was not too worried about Tim Briggs, he'd understand. No Nakumura was who I was worried about. I was worried what his honor code would feel about torture, but it wasn't something I could try and hide. Everyone knew exactly what was happening, they just tried to convince themselves they didn't.

We had teams of people working on the information, making weapons to fight the vampire plague and this information is what they needed, and as long as there was more to be learned… I would capture and torture as many Vampires as needed. And then… I'd find and kill him, the vampire who took my life from me. I'll do it alone… I will have my revenge.

**Embry's POV**

I stared out of the window of my final class of the day. _Friday..._ I never had weekend plans but anything would be better than school. My teacher droned on about something I probably should be paying attention to but couldn't. I was too busy thinking about D. It was a problem. I always forgave and forgot about arguments. She didn't… If I did something wrong I could expect it to be brought up again, and again. I sighed. It was something I had mastered. I had to let things go otherwise they ate at me. _funny how I think I can let things go… _I thought to myself. The truth was there were things I wanted to forget about but couldn't. There were things I wanted to forgive but I just couldn't do it.

It always had to be something they were sorry for, and by the look on her face she wasn't. _Leah._ No… I couldn't forgive her, no matter how much I wanted to say f' it I couldn't. I felt this horrible sense of injustice every time I thought about. _How can no one see how wrong this was? How she wronged me so horribly?_ I thought.

I couldn't talk to anyone about it. I couldn't bring it up, what the hell difference did it make? It was just better not to think about it. I couldn't shake it now though. I clenched my fist under the desk my left arm was shaking I could feel my blood boiling. I looked up to the teacher raising my right hand.

"May I use the restroom?" _This is fucking ridiculous I'm the alpha male of a pack that has repealed a army of vampires, not to mention scared the most powerful vampire coven in to leaving without a fight. I've fought against werebears, and other wolves, and never been beaten and here I am, asking some balding old Teacher whose greatest accomplishment in life is probably graduating from college if I can use the bathroom._

"Very well Mr. Black but do come back quickly." He addressed me. I got out of the room quickly. I made my way down the hall but passed the bathroom I stopped leaning up against the wall with my hands on the metal frame above the lockers. I wrapped my fingers around it and just let my anger out squeezing the thing metal frame with all my anger. I felt the metal bend under my fingers. I breathed out slowly trying to calm down.

"Well look what you just did." My heart thudded with an especially hard beat. _No… _I turned my head with my fingers on my indentations. I didn't need to turn to know exactly who it was.

"Clearwater." I said shortly.

"Call." She retorted. I bent the metal further in itself flexing my entire upper body trying to push some of the anger out but failing.

"Why the hell are you here?" I said looking at her.

"I need Alice's help."

"Well she's not here… Leave now" I said with a growl.

"That's no way to treat me…"

"Yeah whatever, why the hell are you here?"

"Patrick… he's having troubles controlling himself. I just want him to be normal… I want to get him some help." I nodded.

"Huh… well the first way I can see is stop dating one of them." I said skirting the line of what they were. We were in school…

"You're living with them, and you'd judge him?"

"Yeah… I would. I won't say him being one makes him any worse… you know exactly why I feel the way I feel. You used to be the worst of all of us against them."

"Well I'm not… Patrick is nice, he's caring…"

"He's a fucking monster!" I finally yelled back at her. She growled and pounced at me flying through the air, I caught her arms and spun her in to the locker behind me with a thud. My forearm was holding her head up against the locker and my other arm holding her up. I looked down at her hand that was grabbing my arm. It was her left hand… _ring finger._

"What… the… hell… is that." I tried to hold back my anger. She smiled evilly at me.

"It's my promise ring… he gave it to me." my whole body tightened up in anger.

"And he's not so needy that he needs me there every second, he can give me space if I need it." Every muscle in my body was clenching and I felt a sick feeling in my stomach.

"Shut up…" I said quietly.

"And he's not too afraid to do something wrong to do it…" She goaded.

"Shut up."

"He doesn't run away from every problem that happens."

"Shut up!"

"And you know what else? I love the way his cold hands feel on my hot body."

"I SAID SHUT UP." I yelled.

"Oh yeah and he loves me." She sneered.

"I loved you…" I said my voice fading. She laughed.

"Loved? Look at you. You hate me beyond reason. You're so angry with me that it literally makes you go insane. And here I am, up against a locker, and you're not even hurting me… you hate me… but you still love me." I felt something caught in my throat. I couldn't talk. I felt a small pair of cold hands grabbing gently at my arms.

"Let her go Embry." I heard Alice behind me. I dropped her and Alice pushed me towards the door. I saw Edward stopping Leah then Rosalie too. As I stepped out with Alice I heard behind me.

"Sorry… I'm the only queen bitch left in his life… get the fuck out of here." It must have been a funny sight. Little Alice who was less than five feet all helping along me who was nearly seven foot tall. I still couldn't speak as she helped me along.

Finally I regained my ability to speak and tried to speak, and then I felt the familiar warm wet feeling of a tear sliding down my cheek. Alice stopped. We were nearly at our car. I turned to face her and she moved closer and hugged me tightly.

"I…" I tried to say.

"Shh." She just said burying her cold face in to my midsection.

"It's okay…" she said again. I squeezed her tightly only comforted by the fact that I couldn't possibly hurt her.

"I… I… She's right… you… know" I sniffed between just about every word trying to keep back the snot rockets that were going to come flying down my face. Alice said nothing just held on all the more tightly.

"She's right… I am… she… she didn't say it… but she knew… I still… I… I still… love her.'

"**Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

I was looking over my paper work again and I heard a soft knock on the door.

"Come in." I said. I knew it was Guy since he was the only one left since the rest were hunting a vampire.

"Sir… I like to talk you about something." He said in his always improving broken English.

"I am Ninja." He said plainly. I didn't understand I knew my history of Japan and the Samurai and Ninja were to very different people. They hated each other. Samurai were nobles trained in the Bushido way of honor. Ninja's from readings were common farmers who used anything around them as a weapon and were Japan's best assassins. The idea that one person could be both was ridiculous.

"Don't you mean Samurai?" I asked. Guy shook his head.

"I am both… grandmother was granddaughter of great Ninja. Grandfather Samurai. Grandfather Pass the rites of a ninja…. Grandmother pass rites of Samurai…" He passed me a small sheet of paper with his handwriting. His mastery of written English far exceeded his ability to speak it. I looked down at it.

_"My grandfather is from a long line of Samurai which you know but my grandmother was also from a line of Ninja. Their relationship was taboo but they did it anyway. I have been trained in both the Shinobi and Bushido ways." _ I looked up at him after reading his note.

"Why haven't you told me this sooner?" He turned side to side.

"Do not like White." He said. It was refreshing to hear someone say something plainly.

"I admit he's not the nicest person on the team."

"Aho." He grumbled. I smiled recognizing the Japanese.

"He may be… but we'll work together, because he's the best at what he does… and so are you."

**Mike's POV**

I rolled around in my bed wanting nothing more than another chance to kiss Tanya. _Did I miss it?_ The same quote from Music Man kept replaying in my head. _'Maybe tomorrow.' 'You pile up enough tomorrows, and you'll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays. I don't know about you, but I'd like to make today worth remembering.'_ It rolled around in my subconscious, the more I tried not to think about the quote the more it repeated itself.

I saw her car come in from my room and ran down the stairs. _Be calm be calm… nothing special…_ _I will kiss her tonight…_

**Embry's POV**

"So what happened today?"

"Nothing." I typed.

"Nothing huh… so what happened you never say nothing." D typed at me. I swore to myself. She'd gotten way too good at reading between the lines. I didn't want to lie to her any more than I had to.

"Leah came to my school."

"Really?"

"That bitch!"

"So you told her to fuck off right?" she typed… I stared at the screen for a moment. _Why didn't I?_

"You didn't… Did you? You talked to her?" She asked. It'd gotten to the point where she could tell when I was holding back by how long it took me to respond I was an extremely fast typist.

"What did she say?"

"How her boyfriend is better than me and all that…" I typed angrily.

"And why should you care?" _why should I care?_

"I don't know… it just made me mad."

"Holy shit, you still have feelings for her!" she typed.

"No I don't."

"You told me you were over her." _How the hell does someone get 'over' somebody? It doesn't seem that simple to me. Why the hell should I have to fix myself and get over someone, she sure as hell didn't have to._

"I'm not going to be second string to some fucking skank."

"It's not like that."

"Damn it Embry, I'm half a country away and she's right there, how do I know you're not cheating on me right now?"

"Because I wouldn't cheat on you."

"Do you love her?" she asked. The words hung in the air choking me.

"I don't know." I said honestly.

"Well talk to me when you figure that out." I turned my Mp3 player to Reel Big Fish and closed my eyes leaning back in the chair.

"there's a ska band on my street, a little ska band  
everybody thinks that they're so fuckin' neat,  
there was nothin' on the radio  
was gonna make my own band, play my own shows  
but that don't work so i' givin' up again,  
she said she loved me cause i played guitar  
that's ok, i didn't love her at all and i say...

i'm givin' up  
i know everything sucks, and this is gonna be the last  
time you hear me complain

well, i went down to the show  
everybody was there, i didn't wanna go  
cause everything they do is so fuckin' cool, every  
song is a hit and the girls like 'em too, i can't  
do that so  
i'm givin' up again...i don't know why i learned  
to play guitar, nobody's gonna know who we are and  
i say...

i'm givin' up  
i know everything sucks  
and this is gonna be  
the last time you hear  
me complain

she said, some day,  
we'll get back  
together maybe  
she said, some day  
things'll be much  
better baby  
but i don't believe her  
and i don't think  
i need her anymore...

i know everything sucks  
and this won't be the last  
time you hear me complain."

**Mike's POV**

Embry walked in to the room heavily. I could see it in his shoulders, how much noise he made when he walked, and his expression on his face. I didn't ask but by the looks of it I wasn't the only one who noticed. Tanya stood up almost immediately.

"Didn't you say you had to leave at nine? Work again right?" she said. It was eight thirty already. I really wasn't looking forward to five a.m. tomorrow.

"Ahh… yeah." I said getting up." We made it out to the car and the whole ride home we talked about this or that very obviously avoiding what happened with Embry. The car came to a stop near at the side of my house and I forced myself to calm down. She smiled at me knowingly. And turned to me.

"Goodnight Mike, tonight was fun."

"Yeah… goodnight." I said calmly. _No damn it! no no no! Come on do it, you know you want to. I don't know should I? Come on just kiss her? What if I do it wrong? What if I screw this whole thing up? It can't be that hard right? Or could it? What if she doesn't like it? What if she doesn't want me to? What if I'm over thinking this all? Come on just kiss her? It's not that easy! Just do it! Okay fine… three… two… one…_

I held my breath leaned in and placed my lips on hers unsure of myself.Her lips were hard but soft, gentle but firm. She didn't move at first and I felt like I did something wrong, I was blushing already if that wasn't enough. She had stopped moving altogether. Her eyes were closed. _Did I do something wrong? No I did didn't I? _I pulled away trying to leave but felt her pulling me back to her as she kissed me back. My heart was beating out of my chest and I knew I was blushing. She didn't force herself on me she didn't push any limits, she just kissed me gently and then pulled back with a big smile.

"Goodnight Mike, tonight was fun."

**I'd like to say a very special thanks to Fatallyyours-xdx a long time reviewer and recent author for updating, hers is the only story on my list that's updated in the last three months, and thanks. I'd also like to thank the rest of my loyal reviewers who are with me through thick and thin, through sad times and good… especially to that reviewer and the other one, you know who you 2 are. I've been fighting the good fight against hackers for the past day or two so let's hope I have a computer to upload and type on next week but if I don't update you'll know why. Thanks for the continued support through reviewing over the many chapters of this "Saga" I can only call it because it's a long haul. Thanks to everyone for reading, remember to review, give high fives, rolls of twenty dollar bills and Knucks."**


	18. Counting Down the Days

**Disclaimer: I am not, nor have I ever been Stephenie Meyer  
**

**Disclaimer Deuce: Got Denarded  
**

'**Ironman' Jack Elzam's POV**

I waited patiently watching Jeremy White openly showing his disapproval for Guy being part of the team. _Keep doing that he's the only one with a weapon that can kill a vampire._ We'd harvested the bones of the first two subjects and made a single blade out of it, I called it a blade because it wasn't even a sword, controlling the heat made it too difficult to do anything more than make a sharp point and edge. Regardless Guy held it as if it was a masterpiece, how he treated the rest of his weapons. Guy took the ridicule in silence.

"And the worse thing is, this 'Guy' won't even fire a damn gun. How the hell do you plan to kill the most deadly foes we've ever known without guns?"

"Oh please just shut the fuck up White." Williams finally said. I smiled inwardly. Williams wasn't impressed with White, but then again the person most impressed with him was White himself. I'd sat through the entire trip of this back and forth not saying a word, arms crossed head down. They all thought I was sleeping but I wasn't.

"We're here." I said without lifting my head. They sounded confused so I lifted my head and the large van came to a stop.

"Come on it's time to set up our trap."

**Embry's POV**

I stared up at the ceiling with my Mp3 player on shuffle. I closed my eyes waiting for the next song to play.

"So here I go and there you went...again  
Just another stupid thing that I done wrong.  
Locked up in my head, knocked down, beaten, left for dead  
With all those brilliant things I should have said.  
I gotta get away, and find something to do  
'Cause everything I hear, everything I see, reminds me of you." _Could there have been a better song for today?_

"Still counting the days I've been without you 1, 2, 3, 4...  
Still counting the days that you've been gone.

Day one, was no fun.  
Day two, i hated you.  
By day three I wish you'd come right back to me.  
Day four, five and six, well I guess you just don't give a shit.  
Day seven, this is hell. this is hell.  
I gotta get away, and find something to do.  
But everything I hear, everything I see, reminds me of you.

Still counting the days I've been without you 1, 2, 3, 4...  
Still counting the days that you've been gone.  
Still counting the days since you left me. 1,2,3,4...  
Still counting the days since you've been gone.

A thousand things I wanna say to you, but it's too late now.  
A thousand things I wanna say...  
A thousand things I wanna say to you, but it's too late now.  
A thousand things I wanna say...

Still counting the days I've been without you.  
Still counting the days that you've been gone.  
Still counting the days I've been without you 1, 2, 3, 4...  
Still counting the days that you've been gone.  
Still counting the days since you left me 1, 2, 3, 4...  
Still counting the days that you've been gone.  
Gone...  
Gone...  
Gone...  
Gone..." I sighed forcing myself out of bed. _Its Saturday, I can stay in bed however f'in long I want._ I groaned rolling myself out of bed. It was three in the afternoon and I'd woken up at seven like I was accustomed to. I made my way down to the computer. _You're checking your e-mail again? You checked it less than an hour ago._ I mentally berated. I opened up my e-mail page and saw there was one message. I felt my heart beating fast. _Is it D? Is she finally talking to me?_ After last week's fight she told me she wanted some time. I forced myself to give it to her no matter how much I needed her. To tide me over for the week much to the chagrin of Alice Jasper found a picture of D and showed me it. I knew her full name so he found one. She didn't have a facebook but Jasper had his resources and determination. I smiled to myself. _He is damn good._ I swallowed hard I was putting off looking in my message because I was worried it'd be her saying she didn't want to talk to me again… I opened the message list.

**Hewlett-Packard Welcome to the HP Download Store.**

_Damn it!_

'**Ironman' Jack Elzam's POV**

"Everything is set up correctly, ready everyone?" I heard an exhale of breath behind me. I turned quickly drawing my Beretta. Smiling with a cigar in his mouth was Havik. He said nothing but kept blowing out heavy puffs of smoke. He didn't react to our guns leveled at him but continued to smoke. Finally he pretended that he finally noticed us.

"What are you doing here Havik." I asked not lowering my gun.

"Same as you, dealing with a vampire."

"We'll be taking the vampire." Havik chuckled silently and his shoulders shrugged up and down.

"I really couldn't care less as long as they end up dead."

"He will." I answered. He took a long drag from his cigar.

"Good… This one has a special ability." He said as if he was leaning on air behind him.

"Special ability, what do you mean vampires have special abilities?"

"That'll cost you 250,000 dollars." He said flatly.

"You know I don't have the access to those funds." He shrugged.

"That's your problem… but… if you were to give me some information, like what your operation is… I'll tell you what his power is." He said taking another drag of his cigar.

"I can't tell you that." He smiled back at me as he looked down at the alley from the roof where we set our trap.

"I guess we're going to see a show." He smiled at me.

**Embry's POV**

Saturday night, It's supposed to be the most fun night of the week, I'm sitting at home doing nothing. Everyone is doing nothing though so I don't feel so bad. I drowsily made my way back to the computer. I opened my e-mail. _One message._ I tried not to get my hope up but I couldn't stifle the racing of my heart.

**D We need to talk**

I gulped as I forced myself to open the e-mail.

_ "Dear Embry,  
Thanks for giving me some time, it's hard for me since  
you're the first guy I've really trusted since my ex hit me.  
You're the first guy who I've dated in a year and a half.  
I'm sorry if I seem to flip out over the little things but…  
I've never loved anyone like this before. I've dated plenty  
of guys through middle school and high school but I've never  
felt this way before. I understand that you really want to see  
a picture of me and it was kind of weird of me to keep you  
away so much especially since I feel more comfortable  
talking to you than anyone else besides my family. I might  
expect a lot out of you but know that I love you and this  
week was horrible for me. Enclosed is a picture of me.  
Love  
Destiny Steramin"_

I got a lump in my throat then felt my heart leaping for joy.. The truth was I already knew she was gorgeous. Jasper showed me a picture of her half a week ago. She had beautiful skin that almost matched mine, she too was partially native American. She had short brunette hair and beautiful green eyes. She looked tall, she had told me that she was never comfortable with her height since she was 5'11. _Yeah… you might have been taller than me before I started shifting but now I've got at least eight inches on you._ I calmed my giddy excitement to reply.

"_Dear Destiny,  
I won't pretend to know how it feels to be in an abusive  
relationship, but I'll try to be empathetic. Every time you  
bring up exes, or any relationship experience I only have  
Leah to go back on… I'm really sorry but I've never been  
in another relationship. I know you hate when I bring her  
up and I'm sorry. I want to learn more. It's so weird to be  
in a relationship with someone who doesn't know who  
I am or has some history with me… I just know that I don't  
want that to come in between us because I love you.  
Sincerely  
Embry Black"_

It was the first time I had told her I loved her… I meant it too, I couldn't hold back anymore. I kept telling myself I'd wait to tell her I loved her until I was ready to marry her or something like that. It was too hard for me to keep my emotions in, it was impossible. There weren't enough words in the English language for how much she meant to me.

**Jeremy White's POV**

'Ironman' had moved in to position. He was waiting to strike and that psychotic bastard Havik was on the opposite roof just watching while he remained smoking. He'd been smoking for the last two hours on and off.

"Target is approaching." I called almost silently in to my sleeve, I couldn't risk being any louder. Crouched next to me on the roof was Guy Nakamura. I didn't understand why he was still with us. _I'm the only back up they'll ever need and I'll probably do nothing._ The one piece that had us all on edge was some magical ability that Havik _warned_ us about. He moved in to our trap perfectly, I had a bead on him and Ironman moved out to take the shot. He must have heard Ironman move because he turned immediately then put his hand on the fence on the alleyway separating buildings. Ironman took the shot stunning him but he still managed to pass through the wall leaving the electrical shocks behind him. _Wait what the fuck? _I was barely standing and I heard Guy calling me.

"Shoot him when I'm safe." _Shoot him when I'm safe? _ Immediately sprinted towards the other side of the building and Launched himself off the building. _That crazy fuck! It's two stories high! _I ran after him looking down in shock only to see him land on Mark III with his sword stabbing through his heart. Guy grabbed his leg and rolled away.

"SHOOT!" he yelled. I leveled my rifle and took my tazer shot. The vampire went limp on the ground. I jumped down to the stair access and made my way down to the ground next to Guy who was still on the ground. Ironman and our bait Williams jumped the fence and were right next to me.

"What the hell happened?" Elzam asked. Guy just clutched his legs and smiled. They both looked at the vampire with a sword impaled through his heart then at me."

"I'll tell you what happened." I finally said as I realized Guy wasn't going to brag.

"This fucking Ninjaman here saw him pass through the wall and thought 'huh maybe I'll just fucking jump on him and stab him through the heart, yeah definitely that couldn't possibly go wrong.' Then he rolled away and I took the shot." Lisa tried not to smile but failed, then she laughed. I think I even saw Commander Elzam laugh.

"So you approve of his membership to this group?" Elzam asked amused.

"Approve? Fuck… if we split in two teams I want this fucking crazy ninjaman is on mine." I heard a slow clap coming from the roof. We all looked up to see Havik smiling and applauding us, but none of us knew what to make of it.

**Wow that chapter is much longer than I was expecting. I know it's short but TODAY everything I wrote for the week got deleted. So yeah all this I wrote today, Be impressed… Oh yeah and if that's not enough I was just getting over my sickness and then I started taking care of a family member I THOUGHT got sick from me, nope apparently not… because I got sick from him too… so yeah Robotussin blows. So yeah Pity reviews, I'm not too bashful to ask for them. Especially since I rushed because I knew I wouldn't get a chance to write tomorrow. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, Embry's part was much more romantic than I originally planned but what can you do… Make sure to leave your ideas, knucks, rolls of twenty dollar bills, high fives, and comments. Catch you on the flip side.**


	19. Careless Whisper

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer =/= Fireproof  
**

**Disclaimer Deuce: Remember the Mark I Zealot, it'll come back... yeah I know I've got a LOT of stuff for you to remember but I update weekly, so there!  
**

"**Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

I looked down at the sheet of paper handed to me by messenger.

"_Please burn after reading.  
Work on the Mark I Zealot is progressing well  
some hiccups are occurring but no more than  
expected. The prototype piece of armor should  
be on its way to you by next week for testing.  
We have no beta testers as per request of your  
department to keep this as secret as possible.  
Work on moving shields for the arm and fingers  
aren't coming along as nicely as we would have  
hoped but we're working on it. Currently no  
efforts to make this suit any faster, or stronger  
have happened, all focus is on the ability to  
sustain damage without hurting the wearer  
next update on the Mark I Zealot will occur  
Next week with the Chest plate."_

I reached into my desk and grabbed a lighter, looking over the note one last time. Then flipped it open and on.

**Mike's POV**

Everything was going great with Tanya. I couldn't shake that odd feeling though something was off. It always seemed like she was taking care of me… like she never needed my help. It made me sad… made me feel unnecessary. She seemed invincible. _You're just crazy Mike._

"Hey Mike… It's Tanya on the phone for you." I felt my heart start speeding up. I ran down stairs and grabbed the phone.

"Hey?" I said still unsure.

"Hey yourself!" She called back at me.

"How are you doing today?" I asked.

"Same old same old… But I miss you, why haven't you came over yet?"

"I haven't been invited?" I said wondering why that was a question.

"You don't need to be invited just show up." I laughed._ I'm sorry but that's just not me._

"Sorry I've never been really comfortable just showing up at people's houses." I could hear her giggle on the other side of the line.

"Well do you want to come over or should I?" I shrugged then remembered she couldn't see me.

"Doesn't make a huge difference to me just pick one I suppose."

"I'll see you soon then."

"Huh?"

"I'm inviting myself over and you can't stop me." I laughed and said my goodbyes.

**Embry's POV**

_"Stupid song." _She typed me in a message.

_"Which song?" _I asked.

_ "That's just it I can't find out and I already txted my brothers and they are looking it up too and can't figure it out."_

_ "Really?"_

_ "Yeah it's something about "guilty feet have got no rhythm" or something like that." _I knew I'd heard that song before but couldn't put my finger on it.

_ "Right I've heard that song before…"_

_ "Yeah well I'm trying to learn it on guitar but can't find it."_

_ "It sounds like a kind of difficult song to play on guitar." _I said skeptically.

_ "It's no harder than Godsmack or Metallica and I play both of them." _I was really surprised. I didn't know many girls that played guitar, much less music I liked.

_ "Damn… You have no idea how hot that is."_

_ "What is?"_

_ "The fact that you play rock and metal on guitar and you're a girl." _I typed laughing to myself

_ "Hah… most guys just say I've got a nice ass." _She responded.

_ "I'm not most guys I guess…" _I typed while laughing.

_ "The song is called 'Careless Whisper' it's a cover by Seether."_

_ "Oh thanks! You're the best Embry!" _ I blushed. _Really? Blushing? One compliment?_

_` "You ever think about meeting?" _I typed. She couldn't know how much I thought about it even if I causally asked.

_ "Every day… More than you could possibly know." _I smiled. It was nice to see her say it even if I didn't believe her

_ "So why don't we?"_

_ "I don't know…" she typed._

_ "I could come down and see your place."_

_ "No… I'm… I'm not ready for that I haven't told all my brothers about that… my parents know about you but… my brothers are very protective." _Truthfully I hadn't told my mom… but I only see her once a month.

_ "I want to meet you." _I typed hoping she wouldn't read my impatience

_ "I do too… Let's make plans for me coming up there then."_

_ "Well I'll just need to talk to my parents about it."_

_ "Sure…" _I typed not completely sure I believed her

_ "Embry?"_

_ "Yes D?"_

_ "I love you." _I smiled and sighed.

_ "I love you too."_

"**Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

"This order comes straight from the top… We're taking a full Coven this time." I searched through my team.

"Isn't that dangerous?" Nakamura asked, his English getting better every day.

"Yes… it will be very difficult, and we need to use our call signs, no screwing up, we can't give them anything to know us by.

"Call Signs?" Nakamura asked.

"Yes… You're "Shinobi", Briggs is "Tiny" Schmidt is "Psycho", White is "Hawkeye." I'm "Ironman." Williams looked at me. I'd intentionally not said hers.

"What's mine, oh fearless leader?" she said mocking me. I smiled evilly.

"Yours is 'Red'." I said with a smile. Her face turned red understanding exactly what I meant. White and Briggs started laughing and it looked like Schmidt was holding back a laugh.

"Very funny…" She said.

"Now that that is out of the way let's look at how we plan to capture Nos VII, VIII, and IX"

"Are we taking all three of them at once?" Williams asked.

"Yes, but separately… they all hunt on their own. We will split in to three teams and capture each of them at the same time." I explained

"Hawkeye and Shinobi will be the first team, Tiny and Psycho will be team two." The was snickering over Schmidt's Call sign.

"And lastly Red and myself, Ironman will be team three." I heard Williams grumbling.

"Why did I get stuck with you." She said aimed at me.

"Maybe you should have made a friend if you didn't want to get stuck with me." I said back at her.

"Baby, I'll be with you right now if you want." White said. Williams groaned.

"Nevermind, I think I'm okay with Elzam." Again there was snickering.

"We've got newly issued tested equipment, scientist tested, everything SHOULD check out but it hasn't been tested in the field so be prepared if something doesn't work."

"If you don't think they'll work, why are you putting them in the field before testing?"

"One we don't have time, and two they were tested but not in the field… I think most of them will work fine but be prepared none the less."

**Mike's POV**

"Tonight was fun." She said smiling at me in front of her car. She'd spent the night playing games, watching movies and just hanging out with me and my family.

"Yeah it was… and thanks for spending time with my family… it's nice to spend some time here instead of the Cullens." She smiled at me. That same irresistible smile that made my heart skip a beat.

"It was fun, I'm glad I got to spend some time with all of you." More than anything I wanted to grip her tightly and kiss her but I stopped the urge. Her gloved hand ran down the side of my sleeve and arm and I felt a tingle follow it and I kept it from running up my spine. A little wrinkle of frustration showed on her forehead.

"Damn it Mike! Why haven't you kissed me since that first kiss?" she said crossing her arms and pouting. I lifted my hand and gently touched my middle and index finger against her temple then slid them down the side of her face wrapping them around her chin before pulling myself to her lips. Her lips were cold but inviting. I opened my mouth for the first time and took in her scent. I tentatively pushed my tongue in to her mouth but she didn't move she stopped moving all together… almost as if her body froze up. _Oh no! I must have done something wrong. _ I pulled myself away quickly.

"I'm sorry Tanya I didn't know… I didn't mean to do anything you-" she interrupted me by throwing her arms around me and kissing me back. I naturally wrapped my arms back around her and tasted her tongue as it entered my mouth. I ran my fingers through her beautiful hair. Our lips finally parted and I kissed her cheek and then her jaw and whispered gently to her ear.

"You're so beautiful…" I said quietly then pulled my face back. She smiled and had a twinkle in her eye.

"You're amazing… you know that don't you?" I laughed.

"Sure…" she pulled me close and put her head on my chest. I breathed slowly trying to slow down my heart beat.

"You don't get it do you." She said holding on to me tightly. I wrapped my arms gently around her."

"Don't get what?" I said kissing the top of her head taking in the scent of her hair.

"How amazing you are." I smiled and turned away.

"Yeah…" I said not knowing what else to say.

"You still don't believe me… You've made me feel special… like I'm the only girl in the world… and for more reasons than I'm drop dead gorgeous."

"And humble too." I said talking in to her hair. She slapped my back as if angry but went back to hugging me.

"You don't understand how much you mean to me… maybe someday you will." She said softly. I tightened my grip on her holding her as tightly as I allowed myself as to not hurt her. She seemed tough on the outside, but I could never forgive myself if I hurt her.

"I don't want you to leave… five days is too long to go without seeing you. I still don't get how I got so lucky with you."

"You've got a lot more to offer than people can see."

"I still feel like you're out of my league." I said honestly.

"If I lived a thousand years… I would never find someone who meant as much to me as you Mike… I promise you."

"**Shinobi" Guy Nakamura's POV**

"Shinobi in position."

"Hawkeye has eyes on the target… I'll be taking the crippling shot, followed by stunning shot." _We had discussed this before. He was going to test the new bullet, plus taking the shot would give the victim of VII safer, our number one priority was assuring no one died and this bullet testing would help. If all went according to plan I wouldn't been needed at all. _I chased after the vampire as fast as I could. It was the greatest problem with our plan. I couldn't keep up with a vampire.

"Hawkeye take the shot." I called. I heard a click over the radio.

"Shinobi pursue, Bullet didn't shoot, I'm coming up as fast as I can." I broke in to a dead sprint. I could see the vampire in the distance. He was in an alleyway. I chased after the vampire as fast as I could. I the lights dimmed and I could barely see the silhouette of vampire. _Must kill him. _I thought before unsheathing my sword and striking. _Wait what? _The vampire was a woman. I hesitated for only a split second before swinging. I felt a cold hand on my wrist of my sword arm. I felt a squeeze and dropped my weapon and felt my body being lifted in to the air and sent flying across the alleyway. My vision was blurring.

"What is this… this toy?"

"Do you think you're some kind of ninja?" she said lifting my body in to the air. I felt my chest lifting then my arms then legs until I was hanging limp in the air, my face down as if to convince her I wasn't conscious.

"You look utterly delicious… but you might be able to serve me to… oh but your smell… mmm It's so mouthwatering." _What's happening? Why can't I fe…_

"**Tiny" Tim Briggs' POV**

"Terminate targets immediately… Shinobi is down, I repeat Shinobi is down." I grabbed my radio.

"What was that?"

"Shinobi is down… needs assistance immediately."

"Tiny, Psycho, terminate VIII, Red assist Shinobi, I'll take the shot on IX"

"Copy Commander." I called in.

"As ordered." Psycho called. Red must have nodded to Ironman. I nodded to Psycho next to me and we broke out in to a sprint at.

**Guy "Shinobi" Nakamura's POV**

_What happened? _I tried to move quickly but felt pain in my ribs. I wrapped my arms around them and felt pain in my hand. I finally opened my eyes.

"He's awake." _White?_

"White… why are you here?"

"I stayed by your bedside the entire time… I couldn't sleep knowing you weren't okay." I blinked…

"…really?" I said hoping he wasn't serious

"Of course not you crazy fuck ninja… We're taking shifts, it was my shift."

"What's the…" I said trying to find the right word.

"Diagnosis?" I nodded.

"Cracked ribs, sprained wrist, and a concussion… you lucked out." White said honestly.

"I sure feel lucky." I forced myself not to laugh…

"I failed my mission…" I said gravely. I lost in battle, for that I should be killed in the of the samurai.

"But you didn't fail… your mission became protecting the human… and you succeeded." I closed my eyes as White explained. _Maybe I can live with that._

**Yeah my deadlines are getting close… Writing is getting harder and harder every week. When you're out partying six nights a week writing takes a back seat… I know it's horrible… It's something I'll have to deal with. Thanks for reading everyone. Hours upon hours go in to writing a chapter, I would hope you could spare a couple minutes to review. Remember knucks, high fives, rolls of twenty dollar bills and reviews. Catch you on the flipside.**


	20. Tournament

**Disclaimer: Is not Stephenie Meyer… he's just ahead of the curve. (joker reference for those who didn't catch it)**

**Disclaimer Deuce: This Chapter is brought to you by X-Men: First Class. But more for you on that in the author's note.**

'**Ironman' Jack Elzam's POV**

"We've got a small problem." I explained to the team, minus Nakamura who was still in recovery.

"What's that?" Briggs asked.

"This equipment hasn't been tested… so we will need to test it ourselves." I continued.

"What is this equipment… looks like a piece of chest armor…" White asked.

"It's the prototype chest piece for body armor designed to protect you from damage."

"That?" Nate asked looking at a piece that didn't seem to protect much.

"It's supposed to create a shield that protects from any damage… just need someone to try it out on." Nate Schmidt stepped forward. I blinked at Schmidt.

"You do realize you're volunteering to have us hit you as hard as we can to see if it hurts." Schmidt smiled.

"Sounds fun." I watched Schmidt put the vest on and Brigg's take a cheap shot on his stomach Schmidt coughed a bit but didn't get bent over in pain.

"Oh, it wasn't on yet?" Brigg's said feigning innocence.

"I'll get you for that one." Schmidt said with a laugh. I watched the machine start to work.

"Okay so how does this work?" Schmidt asked

"It's supposed to produce a thin sort of force field material that covers the front of your torso." Briggs threw a stiff punch and Schmidt didn't react, he threw three more, same effect. Each of us took turns taking swings and kicks at Schmidt as Briggs left the room. I was surprised. He'd probably enjoy this the most.

"Out of the way!" I heard a yell. I moved quickly and saw Briggs running in with a wooden bat. And swung at Schmidt. It connected with his stomach bending him over it. Schmidt stood back up.

"Didn't feel any pain… I think we've got a working prototype." I nodded.

"Let's get it back to the scientists… they've got work to do before our next vampires.

**Embry's POV**

_Hey Embry  
Everything is a go. I had to tell my mom  
about going up to Minnesota to see you.  
She said she wouldn't tell the guys if I  
brought my younger brother Sam along.  
We need to drive… something about not  
trusting air planes or something. But our  
plans are good, we'll leave later this  
month, just in time for your birthday.  
I can't wait to meet you… talk to you  
face to face… and do a couple other  
things… Love ya  
Destiny Steramin_

I smiled looking at the message… I couldn't believe I was really going to meet her… after all this time.

_ Hey D  
I look forward to it. You might not  
know how much I look forward to it  
I can't wait to meet you. So your mom  
is okay with smuggling you out? That's  
kind of funny. I'll be counting down the  
days. I love you  
Embry Black._

**Tanya's POV**

_Mike was so surprised when I told him I wanted to watch him fight. Guess most girls aren't supposed to be in to fight tournaments. He probably outweighed all of the other fighters by fifty pounds at least… but most of them don't know he sure as hell doesn't move like it. He danced on the balls of his feet with such a balance and grace of speed. Maybe that's why I'm so attracted to him; he is like me… a power locked in the façade of someone without it. The way Mike moved, the way he paid attention to details, any time we were in public he was always protective of me. I honestly found it kind of hot. He missed some things but he'd catch if someone was checking me out and out of reflex move next to me. He didn't need to tell me he was fiercely protective, I could feel it standing next to him… _

I saw Mike starting to show the signs of fatigue in his fight but he kept his guard up. I could have sworn I saw a smirk across his face for a moment before he went in for a kick. His leg came up for a inside outside axe kick but turned upside down in mid air striking for the face in a upside down round kick. _What the fuck? _

"POINT!" I heard the center judge yell. That put Mike ahead four to three. Mike danced around the circle as his opponent chased after him. His opponent launched a flurry of moves Mike now easily moved away from then stepped in and delivered a reverse punch to his stomach.

"POINT!" the center judge yelled again.

"TIME!" one of the two sitting on the side said.

"And the winner is… Red." The center judge said raising Mikes hand. There were five judges. Four corner judges and one center judge. Mike took his spot on the ground and breathed in and out slowly.

"Nice fight man." John Peterson said next to him. Mike was his Black Belt partner for testing.

"Yeah, you too." Mike responded.

"I was a big fan of the Peet Cha Gi." Mike laughed.

"Thought you'd like that…" Mike said.

"I'm definitely using that in my next fight." _Mike had told me he hadn't been able to focus on training enough to test for his black belt. I asked how focused did you have to be? He scoffed at me but then tried not to insult me with it. He explained if you never missed a test, tested every single time it came up you could be a black belt in exactly four years of constant training. And the Black belt was technically "midnight blue" and the actual black belt didn't happen until you were a Sa Ba Nim, or master. Something like that. Also there were the Essays and papers due with the test as well as real life applications and personalized demonstrations aside from all the requirements for testing._ I asked why it was so complicated. He smiled.

"Becoming a Dan (or blackbelt) is like graduating from college… only the learning doesn't end at Dan… it's just the beginning."

"Michael Iverson and Hernadez Lopez" Mike got up stiffly.

"Go Mike!" I heard a yell. My attention turned to her. _She had dark brunette hair, she was small… maybe 5'3… but probably not. She had light skin and was wearing blue jeans and a black shirt. Her hair was down to her shoulders, straight. She was attractive… What's she doing cheering for Mike?_ _Who is she? I tried to pay attention to the fight but my eyes kept moving back to her._

"Jealousy doesn't suit you Tanya." Rosalie said next to me.

"I'm not jealous." I said making a disapproving sound.

"Then stop staring at Rina." She responded.

"Whose Rina?"

"The girl that you're staring at."

"I'm not staring at a girl." I said refusing to acknowledge Rosalie's statement.

"She's a friend of Mike's she came to the tournament to support him."

"Just a friend huh?"

"Yes… now if you'd pay attention Mike just lost in the semi finals." _Oh damn it._ I thought. He sat down next to John Peterson who got up quickly and started his fight.

"So what's the story with Rina."

"You ARE jealous." Rosalie teased.

"Well… She… just tell me the story."

"They've been friends for three years, she's from the Marching band."

"I don't like her." I said honestly. Rosalie laughed as John Peterson's hand was raised. John Peterson sat down next to Mike. Mike leaned over and whispered.

"Jack him once with a sidekick and he won't give you any trouble, the jerk was hitting me… it's supposed to be zero contact but if they're going to get away with it you'll scare him off." John laughed next to him.

"Thanks Mike." John Peterson said before getting up.

John Peterson ended up winning it all getting first. After the Trophies were handed out I watched John Peterson grab Mike's shoulder.

"Hey… We should have fought in the finals." He said to his ear so people around him couldn't hear.

"Yeah I know… I jacked the guy under his arm above his hip five or six times and never once got a call."

"How about we have our finals round right now… if you win you get the trophy." I saw I smirk appear at the corner of his mouth.

"You're on." Mike said dancing back in to the fighting position.

"Mr. Martinez, could you please help us with a problem." _Mr. Martinez is both of their fight teachers, he's a six time national fight champion, six years running on the region seven "Minnesota" team._

'_Sir, Mike should have made it to the finals and we should have fought for first place… I'd like to fight him because I think he'll be the best fight out of the red belts.' _Peterson said to Mr. Martinez. He smiled then started laughing.

'_Alright, I'll judge it.' _John and Mike lined up and bowed to Mr. Martinez.

"Fight." Mr. Martinez said. By the looks of him Martinez was in his mid twenties. Mike and John hit gloves as a sign of respect and started circling. Mike released a flurry of moves and left his hip open to a front kick that called for a point.

"POINT!"

"Nice one." Mike called smiling.

"Well if you're going to give me easy opening I'll take em." The bantered back and forth and made a couple combinations of moves each one blocking all the strikes. They both had pretty good reflexes. John came in with round kick Mike was leaning in to it. _What the hell is he doing? _I saw his arm come up and block but he spun through and planted a turning heel kick in to John's stomach.

"Point! Two points, spin kick." John laughed as the fight started again.

"Not bad Iverson." I noticed people seemed to be taking an interest in the fight. John charged and threw two kicks a punch then started to spin. He jumped in to a spin ax kick while mike went for a spin side kick. They both laughed as no point was called. John kicked front, round, middle, High round.

"POINT!"_ they're tied up 2, 2._

"Sudden death, tied up, next point wins." Announced Mr. Martinez. They moved back in to their positions and bounced back and forth on the balls of their feet, their movement was almost a mirror of each other but I could see signs of fatigue in Mike. John threw a side kick which Mike forcefully pushed down and launched off his back leg seeing John's head was open for a back fist. At the same time John launched a front kick and tagged him on his ribs.

"POINT!" yelled Martinez. I cringed. _John hit him first. _Martinez grabbed both of their arms.

"And the winner is… John Peterson." He said raising his hand. Peterson reached over and gave Mike a one armed hug.

"Good fight, much better than the one I had for first place… you definitely should have been in the finals." He said quietly to Mike so most people couldn't hear it.

I watched as Rina ran to hug Mike. He smiled and hugged her tightly.

"Hey, good job with the fights."

"Thanks so much for coming… but I'm sorry for hugging you when I am sweaty… I'm going to change out of this stuff."

"No problem!" I watched Mike leave. _I'm not going to take this shit. _I moved down through the crowd next to her.

"What the hell was that? That's MY boyfriend." Rina made a noise and looked at me with contempt.

"Yeah whatever. You're just like you're friend Rosalie accept she at least had the decency to not date him."

"What do you mean by that." I said daring her to say something.

"I mean the fact that she led him on and didn't want anything from him. And now you're dating him and will break him whenever you see fit, well screw you."

"You think you're any better, you know he's had a crush on you for as long as he's known you."

"Yeah, I know, and instead of pushing him away I was still his friend. I've seen him get up the courage to ask girls out, all of them say no then push him away. Mike is a great person but I just don't feel like that about him, but like hell I'll just abandon him because sometimes things get uneasy." I was taken aback, here I was angry at this girl who'd been Mike's emotional best friend for years. I didn't know what to say.

"Right… Call me when you decide to break his heart, so I can show up and start picking up the pieces, again."

"**Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

"We have learned now that there are working bullets. What we have found out though is arrows work just fine… for the time being everyone will learn how to shoot a bow and arrow. We will not take any unnecessary risks. I turned my attention to White. He simply nodded. He'd become much more open to ideas since working with Nakamura. He'd need it, we'd all need it.

"A war is coming… and we're all the humans have. Dismissed."

**Thanks for reading. The reason why this chapter is brought to you by "X-Men: First Class" is first, it's EPIC WIN. Secondly action movies about super humans make me want to write, make me see my story in clarity, see five stories ahead of what I'm writing and make me NEED to put reference to a movie in it. AND I was thinking about just NOT updating this week until next week… because there were a lot of outside events affecting my writing. I'm not immune to the outside world, I'm sorry it's late, but it is what it is. Thanks for reading AND reviewing (see that's me thanking you for the reviewing you're going to do, therein guilting you in to reviewing. Seriously I spend hours on each one of these chapters, if you enjoy them please tell me, tell me what you like about them, tell me what you find interesting, what's kept you reading it for the last… 1 week to 2 years. Read, review, knucks, rolls of twenties, and high fives. Catch you on the flipside. **


	21. Ocean Floor

**Disclaimer: Still riding the high from X-Men: First Class… I bet Stephenie Meyer isn't**

**Disclaimer Deuce: This chapter brought to you with support of reviewers like you.**

"**Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

"Commander, I want to fight… I need to help you." Nakamura nearly begged. His ribs were still in bad shape and his right hand was in a cast still.

"You already have, your bow training will help us with the next vampire." He shook his head.

"No… I can still shoot a bow." He said nearly pleading.

"Your wrist is still shot." I said flat out.

"I just need my two fingers… wrap up my whole arm… just leave two fingers."

"You can't exactly move well yet you know?"

"Give me a spot I can wait… I'll take the first shot to the knee… I'm still the best shot with a bow we have." I was surprised how well his English had been coming along. Even his thick accent was dissipating a little.

"Prove it and I'll consider it."

"I will."

**Embry's POV**

_Hey Embry I've got some bad news.  
Sam has come down with something… It's something  
pretty serious. I can't go to Minnesota with him  
obviously… I'm sorry but I need to focus on my family  
right now, I don't know how often I'll be able to email.  
I'm sorry this is all so sudden but don't e-mail me. I  
don't know what's going on but I don't have time to  
talk.  
D_

I felt a thick lump in my throat. _It's happening again… I'm losing her. _I reread the message. I tried to stay positive.

_Hey D  
I hope your brother Sam feels better, I'll keep you in  
my thoughts._

I had thought about putting "keep you in my prayers" but I didn't pray… I didn't really believe any faith. I didn't understand how some all powerful creator could grant magical wishes, and him not answering prayers were proof as much of his existence as not, but at the same time I couldn't disregard what I saw and felt. I knew there had to be something… I just didn't have the answers.

_I understand how much family means to you. I'd be  
the same if something happened to Jacob. I'll try to  
give you your space and hope all goes well…  
Embry Black._

I sent the e-mail with the gut feeling that it was already over, she hadn't said it but she did everything but say it. It felt like she wanted to but just didn't… I looked over my e-mails. _Junk…junk…jun- wait what?_ One was titled.

"Bow wow Alpha." I blinked. _Who the hell would send that? _ I opened it.

_Sup Mr. Sir-Alpha-Sir  
It's Dena, I just finished my school year of classes and  
have some time. I was wondering if you wanted me  
to come visit. It'd be fun… Maybe we could get a  
motel. Yeah… maybe… but anyway I was thinking  
about just running out there. Maybe we could have  
a fun weekend… maybe more… Give me a message.  
Dena._

I immediately started typing without thinking.

_Hey Dena  
It's great to hear from you. Sorry I've been swamped  
annoying ex girlfriends. It sounds fun, maybe we could  
have a good time, shit knows we need it. Maybe meet  
half way? Somewhere in Idaho? Maybe Montana? Get  
a crappy place and have some…_

_ What am I doing? _I sighed. She's seventeen, I'm going on twenty one. She's young and full of spirit. I'm broken and full of baggage. Oh yeah and it's illegal. I deleted the message. I closed my eyes and started typing because I didn't want to see what I'd say.

_Hey Dena  
I'd love to but can't… I think my girlfriend just broke up  
with me, no not Leah… another one… I'm really knocking  
them out of the park. I would love to but I've got too  
many problems to drop on your lap… too many things  
I've got weighing me down, and it's not fair to put you  
through this when I'm obviously not over my exes. I wish  
I could… but I can't. I want to… but can't.  
Embry Call._

I opened my eyes and hit send not wanted to read what I wrote… I knew exactly what I said whether I wanted it to be true or not it was. My body ached for her touch… for anyone… I couldn't play it off as anything but my bodily needs. I couldn't make it seem like "I just need a friend." No it wasn't that at all. It was my animal side. Sometimes I thought being a shifter enhanced it but I wouldn't know… Leah is the one who brought me in to this animal side and I was a shifter by then. I ran my hands up my face and through my hair feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders, for being an ageless shifter… I felt very old.

**Tanya's POV**

Alice was absolutely giddy about something, she said I needed to hurry and get to Mike's. I could hear him singing through the window upstairs.

"The mistakes I've made  
That caused pain  
I could have done without  
All my selfish thought  
All my pride  
The things I hide  
You have forgot about

They're all behind you  
They'll never find you  
They're on the ocean floor  
Your sins are forgotten  
They're on the bottom  
Of the ocean floor

My misdeeds  
All my greed  
All the things that haunt me now  
They're not a pretty sight to see  
But they're wiped away  
By a mighty, mighty wave  
A mighty, mighty wave

They're all behind you  
They'll never find you  
They're on the ocean floor  
Your sins are forgotten  
They're on the bottom  
Of the ocean floor.

Your sins are erased  
And they are no more  
They're out on the ocean floor  
Take them away  
To return no more  
Take them away  
To the ocean floor  
To the ocean floor!

They're all behind you  
They'll never find you  
They're on the ocean floor (they are behind you)  
Your sins are forgotten  
They're on the bottom  
Of the ocean floor

Your sins are erased  
And they are no more  
They're out on the ocean floor

Your sins are forgotten (your sins are forgotten)  
they're on the bottom  
of the ocean floor.

Your sins are erased  
And they are no more  
They're out on the ocean floor" _Wouldn't it be nice to believe that?_ I thought to myself. He had once asked me what I believed in, what was my faith. I answered him truthfully… I didn't know what I believed, I still was looking for what I thought was true. I hurried to the door wondering what Alice was so excited about. Apparently something was going to happen tonight, and that excited me. _How long have you been around and you're giddy over some guy. What happened to the great manipulator, the succubus? Maybe I'm tired of it._ I told myself. I opened the porch door and stepped up to the main door in to the kitchen and opened it.

"Oh, Hi Tanya. I think Mike's upstairs, I'll call to him."

"No problem, I'll just go up there." I ran up the stairs silently hearing him singing again and smiled to myself.

"Hands up holler back now  
we don't claim any know how  
We givin God all that  
where ever we go that's where the parties at." I stepped in to the room and saw him dancing to the music. I smiled a bit and made sure I didn't laugh. He spun and saw me and stopped dead. He blushed so bright. _Again with the blood. _I smiled forcing myself not to laugh. We stood there for a moment…

"I'm going to act like you didn't just see and probably hear that." He finally said and I couldn't stop from laughing this time. He seemed even more embarrassed if it was possible. I closed the distance between us and wrapped my arms around him in a hug. He returned it pulling me in I took in his scent at his chest. I'd talked to the Cullens, particularly Edward about how he resisted Bella. The best he thing he told me was the fear of losing her forever drove him. I drank in his scent, and the warmth of his embrace holding me tightly… I don't remember being held like this. It was nice… it was right.

"I missed you." I heard him say.

"It was only a week as usual." I answered smiling in to his chest.

"I know… but I always miss you." I squeezed him a bit tighter.

"Come on let's go, we'll miss the movie if we wait much longer."

"There's something I need to ask you… I know it's very last minute but next week my older brother is getting married… and I was kind of hoping you'd be my date." I smiled widely. _So this must be what Alice was giddy about. _I looked at him then realized he was still waiting for my answer.

"Of course! Now let's get out of here otherwise we're going to miss X-Men: First Class" I said.

"You have no idea how awesome it is that you like X-Men… you know that?"

**Guy "Shinobi" Nakamura's POV**

I easily made my testing shots necessary to prove to the rest of the team I could still shoot but it still hurt, a lot. I tried to hide my pain but White saw it immediately. Almost as soon as I finished the shot he was next to me. The rest of the team left quickly but he didn't. He waited next to me.

"Okay… Nakamura is coming with us tomorrow to Hunt Nos X" he said before dismissing the team. The rest of the team left quickly but he didn't. He waited next to me.

"There are enough of us to take out one vampire without you." He said flat out.

"I just proved I can do it."

"You just proved you're a suicidal stubborn jap."

"And you'd do anything thing different?"

"I can't say I would, but it doesn't make it the right choice."

"You know if something goes terribly wrong there's no way you'll make it out alive and I sure as hell can't carry you out and make it." He nodded.

"It would be a good death."

**Tanya's POV**

"I'm bored." I sighed sitting across from Rosalie.

"Why don't you go and give Mike the best day of his life?" She said referring to sex.

"He's working an auction again." I said flatly.

"Holy shit… you'd do it wouldn't you?" I smiled at her evilly.

"Why… jealous you can't?"

"Don't play around with that. He's not like us… he's not even like your _flings._" Rosalie said with the venom in her voice seeping in. I laughed.

"How very proper of you."

"He's not just another fuck toy." She seeped.

"You know… I'm really tired of being treated like a cheap skank… I couldn't do anything to the Human… but you… I think it's time to see who really is the top female of our two covens."

"Fine by me… it's about time I brought you down a peg. You think just because you lead the inferior coven that makes you special… no it makes you second best." She said. I leapt at her.

**Jasper's POV**

"I win again!" I smiled. After all these years she still celebrated like a nine year old winning their first board game. I just sat back and watched.

"Ahh shit." Alice said as I saw her get a vision.

"What?" I heard a loud crash from downstairs."

"Rose and Tanya are fighting…" I got to my feet and in to the hallway then outside looking back in to see a large hole in the side of the house. Emmett and Edward were next to me in an instant. Rosalie grabbed Tanya by the back of her hair and yanked her to the ground. Tanya flipped backwards still having her hair held on to and kicked Rosalie in the side of the head pushing her back. I watched as Tanya wrapped her fingers around Rosalie's neck and started pummeling Rosalie with punches.

"It's time for us to step in." I said and they both nodded. We quickly broke them up Emmett holding back Rosalie and myself holding back Tanya.

"You fucking Harpy bitch!" Tanya yelled at Rosalie.

"Skanky bitch!" Rosalie replied. _Damn this could take a while._

**Guy "Shinobi" Nakamura's POV**

I was losing consciousness quickly. I tried to remember what happened but it was all fading away… in a slow blur of darkness… _maybe death wouldn't be so bad…_

_I made my silent single to the rest of the team sitting next to me… I had my target on the vampire's knee. I released the bow. The vampire immediately turned towards me, staring me in the eye and then he smiled… a dark smile… it was something so sinister… It was that moment I knew everything had gone terribly wrong. He easily caught the arrow and snapped it. He jumped up two stories to my perch and grabbed the front of my shirt I remember his cold hand before I flew across the road in to the factory on the other side and my body hitting the ground._

**Jeremy "Hawkeye" White's POV**

I gripped my stomach putting as much pressure on the wound as possible. I forced my body harder up against the wall trying to force pressure from the opposite side. I saw the beginning of blurred vision occurring. I was in survival mode now. I forced myself not to fall asleep, I knew I probably wouldn't wake up. _How the hell did this happen?_

_I was never comfortable with Nakamura being with us, now for a completely different reason, he should be in recovery not in the field… Guy gave the signal and moments after he shot the vampire was there with us in the room. I didn't have time to react, I grabbed my shiv as fast as I could and stabbed him buring it in his chest. I watched in horror as Guy flew across the street, even more as he nonchalantly pulled the weapon out of his chest and stabbed me in the gut._

"_Now now… that wasn't very polite." He said with a smile before stabbing me in the stomach with my own weapon. I took a desperate swing at him and he easily dodged kicking me out of the building. I fell straight down to the grass hard. Must… Escape… Must… Survive…_

"**Tiny" Tim Briggs' POV**

I forced myself to try and breathe slowly. I knew I was bleeding from the back of my head but couldn't feel it… I was buried under rubble. _How the hell did this go so wrong?_

"_Now Now… That wasn't very polite." The vampire said with a sick smile. He had straight black hair, I charged but not in time to stop Hawkeye from being stabbed or even thrown out of the building. I turned back to "Psycho."_

_ "Start it!" I yelled putting on my bone brass knuckles. It was the only weapon I had on me. I threw a punch as hard as I could. He caught it with the palm of his hand. It wasn't even difficult for him._

_ "Now you… would be a good servant." He said. Servant what the fuck? Then I saw what he was going to do. He was going to make me a vampire. I threw my other arm uselessly. He caught it easily and smiled again as he lowered his face to my hand. I felt a hard shoulder in to my ribs and then I was going pushed out of the way. I turned back to see Ironman shouldered me out of the way. I came back as the vampire focused on the commandant. He turned back to me quickly and kicked my through the brick wall behind me. I watched in horror as it collapsed on top of me._

"**Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

I tried to force myself to get up. My hands were scrapped up from landing on the cement. I pulled my body and my broken leg crawling back across the road towards Hawkeye. _Can't… give… up._ I gritted my teeth trying to ignore the pain in my broken jaw and now my bleeding hands. I didn't care. I crawled with all my might even leaving blood hand prints as I went my hands reached the soft grass… I grabbed it tightly taking the soft cool comfort of each blade of grass my fingers wrapped around. _Don't close your eyes… don't close…_

_ "Start it!" "Tiny" yelled at "Psycho" referring to his chest guard. "Tiny" charged. The vampire easily caught his arm then the other._

_ "Now you… would make a good servant." I knew exactly what he meant and charged. There's no way I can knock over that vampire. I'm sorry Schmidt. I dropped my shoulder in to "Tiny" the vampire smiled at me and signaling me forward. "Tiny" charged back at us. The Vampire still staring me in the eye kicked "Tiny" through a brick wall behind him._

_ "So you're their leader…" I grabbed the knife out of my boot and swung at him he easily dodged it and snapped a side kick into my shin shattering it. I yelled in pain dropping the blade his fist came around and smashed my jaw. Why aren't I dead he could have killed me? I felt his cold fingers wrap around the front of my shirt lifting me in to the air._

_ "Pity… I was hoping you'd be more fun."_

_ "Now there is some more fun…" he smiled looking past me. He causally threw me behind him out of the hole that used to be a window. I forced myself to roll as I landed on the concrete stopping short of slamming my head into it only saved by my hands. I looked down at my now freely bleeding hands._

**Lisa "Red" Williams' POV**

What went wrong? How did it get this bad?

"_Pity… I was hoping for more fun." He said taunting "Ironman" I grabbed his knife that fell to the ground and charged._

"_Now there is some more fun." He threw "Ironman" behind him like old trash. He didn't regard me as a threat. I stabbed for his head as hard as I could. He caught my wrist easily._

"_Now now… that's not very womanly of you." He goaded. He used his free hand to gently run it under my chin. I grabbed my own blade from my pants and he caught it closer to his head. He pulled me close and kissed me. I bit down on his tongue. He leaned back as if I'd complimented him._

"_You're feisty… I'll enjoy you." He spun my two arms around cart wheeling me in to the wall. I turned back seeing "Psycho" charge. I knew what he was going to do. I couldn't yell out loud because I was secretly hoping for it to work… but at the same time it was very possibly suicide._

"**Psycho" Nate Schmidt's POV**

"Start it!" "Tiny" yelled at me. I turned on my chest gear immediately. It didn't have any real offensive._ It DID have the power discharge… but it might kill me too._

"Now you… would make a good servant." I didn't see any other plan as the chest piece started up. _Start faster damn it._

"So you're their leader…" I heard him say. He knew they were buying me time but he didn't seem in any rush to stop me. I looked down at the display.

"Pity… I was hoping you'd be more fun."_ It's on? It's on!_

_ "_Now there is some more fun…"_ Am I really going to do this? It's suicide._

"Now now… that's not very womanly of you."

"You're feisty… I'll enjoy you." He said flipping "Red" away.

"Fuck it. Miracles happen." I said rushing at him. I swung with my knife only trying to get close enough to use the electrical discharge that could very easily kill me with him. I wrapped my gloved hands around his shoulders.

"Rubber?" was his last word before I released the electrical discharge blasting him. He went down but not before his finger outstretched touching my leg. I felt electricity go through my body then I fell straight to the ground.

**Lisa "Red" Williams' POV**

I restrained the stunned vampire and locked everything in to place and ran to Schmidt. _So that's why they call him "Psycho" Nate Schmidt. _ I thought shaking him. I slapped him across the face.

"Damn it wake up!" He laughed opening his eyes.

"You crazy fuck." I yelled at him helping him to his feet. He was shaky at first but regained his composure.

"How did you know that'd work?" I asked.

"Honestly?" He asked as we dug out "Tiny" Tim Schmidt who was coughing from all the dust.

"Yeah."

"I had no fucking clue." We ran down stairs and outside. "Psycho" Nate ran across the road and grabbed "Shinobi" whose eyes were still open. "Tiny" Helped "Hawkeye" to his feet. I was looking for "Ironman" then I saw him sprawled out on the ground, he's body still on the pavement and his hands clutching grass. I saw in horror his bloody hand prints on the ground leading up to the grass.

"Jack? Jack!" I yelled rolling him over. His eyes were closed. Not responding. I shook him gently.

"Jack! Wake up damn it! Come on!" I shook him gently. I felt him cough out and I little blood spat out.

"Stop… They'll think… you care…" he said trying to smile through his shattered jaw. I smiled helping him to his feet and Briggs threw him over his shoulder. _At least we're all alive…_

**Tanya's POV**

"Why'd you flip like that anyway?" Rosalie asked. I shook my head.

"You, Rina… no one believes I really like Mike… I don't like him… I love him… like I've never loved anyone, even Edward." She considered my words.

"Then you have to prove it to everyone."

"This… I understand what Edward said about Bella now… how strong it is… I'd do anything for him…"

"If you'd do anything for him you might need to leave for him…"

"I know I should… but I'm not strong enough… He might not understand how much I love him yet… but it's more than anything… anyone… stronger than anything I've ever felt…"

"And if the Volturi find out?"

"I'll protect him from anything… the whole world comes after him, if the world turns against him… I'll still be his guardian.

"**Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

"Who are you." I asked staring across the table at my restrained guest.

"Who really are any of us? Are we not who we pretend to be? Who we put a masquerade to be? Or are we who we are in our deepest moments of solitude? Can we really know who we are?" he laughed.

"Tell me… Who are you Jack Elzam… but that's not your real name." he said smiling.

"Since you know my name I'll ask you again… who are you?"

"If you ask my name what does it matter? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." He responded.

"So what name do you go by since it holds little meaning to you." He smiled leaning forward to me.

"Xavier."

**OH NO HE DIDN'T! Yeah I did… I just dropped Xavier in to this story… for those of you who have read the fourth book you might be freaking out right now… you should be… if you haven't read the fourth book you shouldn't, it's out of order! I'd like to thank you for your patience… I'm trying to write but it's getting more difficult to write and get chapters out in a week… and I didn't even party every day this week! Thanks for all the reviews, ideas, and conversations, I genuinely enjoy talking to people who enjoy reading my story, it pushing me to write more. I wrote over half of it today so please review, give knucks, Rolls of twenty dollar bills, and high fives. Catch you on the flipside.**


	22. Build me up buttercup

**Disclaimer: hmm well it's a beautiful day and I have to write this to prove I'm not Stephenie Meyer before I can post on a website that she in her right mind wouldn't post on because it's not profiting me… I'm out.**

**Disclaimer Deuce: I don't care if I may have used this song already.**

"**Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

I was still feeling the effects of the capture of Xavier… I wore a brace on my leg so I could walk without a limp. It wasn't as important around the rest of my team, but around Xavier I would show no weakness. My jaw had finally healed enough that I could talk… but not without pain. Not that He'd ever know that… Lucky for us the same guys who were building us the suit were also researching accelerated healing techniques. The pain was definitely still there… all the pain of a broken jaw with all of the functionality of a working one. I breathed in forcing the pain away in to the back of my mind and walked in to the interrogation room.

"So glad you decided to come in, I do so enjoy these talks we have." Xavier greeted me when I came in. We'd done every torture I could imagine that wouldn't kill him and he laughed it off. He treated me as if I was a guest in HIS house.

"Why haven't you broken." I said with a mixture of awe and resent.

"You want to know? Heh because you see… I've got a secret…" I kept my arms crossed.

"Well I can't tell you my secret if you don't lean in." I laughed.

"This whole room is videotaped…"

"Now Now, that's not how secrets work… you gotta promise not to tell anyone." He said obviously playing with me.

"Quit playing games." He leaned back in his chair laughing.

"Games are fun? What use is existence if we can't have our fun?" He said toying with me.

"What's your secret." I said losing my patience.

"Oh fine…" He said leaning in. he looked over my shoulder where he knew the camera and the viewing room was.

"You can't kill me…" He said before leaning back and laughing.

"Really? I can't can I?" I answered trying to take control.

"I've seen types like you… crusaders… all off on some impossible mission to destroy the evil that is vampires…" He paused for a second looking me up and down.

"But it's not that simple is it?" he stopped and looked at me again.

"No, no, no it isn't… you're not some hero fighting the cause because it's right you're…" he paused for a moment.

"More… ignoble than that… Yes… That's what it is." He said pleased with himself. He was right of course but I wouldn't give that away.

"Who was it… A brother? A sister…? Maybe your father… or a lover?" I snorted and realized almost immediately I gave it away. He laughed.

"Revenge, at first though sweet, bitter, ere long, back on itself recoils" I didn't respond hoping to save face.

"You know why I let you capture me?" It was the first thing he said that completely caught me off guard. He saw the shock in my eye.

"Oh you didn't think you caught me because of your skill?" he laughed. I said nothing as the truth began to sink in. _If I can't kill him all I've done is give him information. _I managed to keep a straight face through his comment.

"I let you capture me so I could see how strong you all were, what you had made… intelligence… I could have killed all of you easily."

"If you're so powerful why don't you kill all of us now?" I said goading him.

"Now where is the fun in that? Your worthless air-sucking race has finally reached their pinnacle, a place where the very best of them, you for instance, can finally fight us. You don't know the hell you're going to unleash. It will be biblical. Your feeble-minded grasp for control over a world you have so ignorantly believed was yours all along is doomed to fail. You skin bags play your wars but in presence of the upcoming Apocalypse you'll stand by inutile. You don't realize it but it's all been set in to motion all ready… just waiting… for the last… pieces… to… fall… in… to… place." He finished painfully slow.

"And if I kill you I'll save the world right? No Apocalypse, no world ending right?" He laughed darkly.

"You think I am the harbinger of death? Ha ha… how flattering… I am not he… I am merely his messenger… When the time is right He will rise… and this world will be raised." The very idea was sending a chill up my spine, he wasn't right in the head, he was deranged, a psychopath.

"What do you have to gain from all of this anyway? What has this 'Harbinger of death' promised you?" He smiled again toothily.

"Why nothing… save a front row seat for watching the world collapse… watching the _civilized_ humans turned in to monsters… it will be the world's greatest drama. In the history of the world, there has never been such a fervent grasp for survival, brother will turn on brother for food, and we'll see how _Humane _humans are. When the pieces fall… we're all the same… creatures of survival… all of you... all of us…" he hissed out his words and I swallowed hard and left the room in a hurry. I grabbed a bow out of the cabinet near me and came back and aimed it for his head. He made no motion to dodge or even to struggle.

"Don't shoot the messenger." He laughed. It was his last words.

**Embry's POV**

It'd been a week and like she asked I hadn't e-mailed her, but it was getting more difficult each day. Waiting a week, another week… even two more weeks I could handle… But not knowing drove me mad. It was not knowing if she'd get back to me today, or tomorrow, tomorrow or the next day, this week or a month from now. Maybe she wouldn't get back to me at all? Not knowing kept me wondering at night. The same fears I felt every night about dating long distance now struck me every moment. _Is she cheating? How would I ever know if she was? What's she doing right now? Does she care?_ The questioned bounced back and forth through my head to the point of nausea. My only reprieve from their constant attacks was sleep, but soon she took over that place to in my mind. I told her I wouldn't e-mail her but this was driving me mad slowly. I couldn't wait any longer. It was all I thought about I needed to phase and run just to get away from it, and before I knew it I was up in Canada, and that was no small feat. In this one week it'd happened twice already. No I had to do something about it, I had to message her. I forced myself to finally sit down and type.

_Hey D,  
I'm sorry for e-mailing you since you asked  
me not to but I really needed to know how  
everything is going, I really miss talking to  
you. How is Sam? Will he be okay? I'm  
very worried about him, I hope he's okay  
I hope we can talk soon again, I miss you  
Embry._

She usually didn't take more than three or four hours to respond, but three then four hours past. Then it became night and I waited… I forced myself to get some sleep, and check the next day… then the next… but she hadn't responded yet. _Maybe she wasn't going to respond to me at all? _

**Mike's POV**

_What the hell was I thinking inviting Tanya to the dance with us? I can't dance. _My oldest brother Alex named me Best Man but he added an addendum. The best man had to dance… a lot… And I knew that meant slow songs… and there were only two people in the world I'd be comfortable doing that with… Well as comfortable as I would. _What if I do it wrong? What if I accidently touch her somewhere I'm not supposed? _Tanya told me that she could only make it for the dance and not the ceremony. That was fine. _Maybe if I'm lucky she'll miss it… then I won't have to slow dance… right?_ I knew that was wrong but couldn't help from hoping.

I heard the doors behind me opening and I turned around out of habit I needed to know who was here… and more so I didn't like being surprised… but what I was was definitely surprised. She was in the most beautiful blue shimmering dress. It was hard for me to describe because I wasn't exactly an expert on dresses. The top strap wrapped around the back of her neck. The straps had silver material that only enhanced the shine of her dress. _I tried not to gawk but I could get away with that, right? I mean she is my date… _She spotted me and made her way to me. She had a confident smile on her face and the same thought kept going through my mind. _She's the most beautiful woman I've ever seen… _She put her arms out for a hug and I gave her one, and then felt the cool skin of her back through my suit jacket realizing that her back was open. She smiled at my surprise and spun in place as if to display her dress. I could barely think much speak clearly. She smiled mischievously.

"Do you like it?" She said trying to start up a conversation.

"uh… yeah…" I said almost at a mumble level.

"What was that Mike… I didn't hear you." She said teasing me.

"Stop that…" I said mumbled not looking at her. She gentled grabbed my chin and pulled her face to it kissing me gently.

"If you're not too busy. You have duties to do." I heard a familiar voice cough. I turned to see Kevin, a friend of the family commenting on our kissing. I felt myself blushing fiercely.

"You going to join us out on the dance floor?" I asked Kevin.

"Oh heck no." He laughed and shook his head.

"If the song comes on you have to." He laughed.

"Oh fine." He left us alone and Tanya smiled at me mischievously.

"Yeah…we should make our way over near the dance floor." I said moving that way. She grabbed my arm and wrapped it around her pulling herself closer to me. She looked u in to my eyes mischievously.

"Or we could just stay here in the corner."

**Tanya's POV **

"Or we could just stay here in the corner." His reaction was hilarious, he shook his head as if the idea scared him.

"No no no! We gotta get out there and dance." He said regretting saying it. Obviously he wasn't looking forward to dancing and he'd much rather spend time making out with me… He'd never say it. He tried to play it off as something that wasn't terribly important to him but I could tell he enjoyed it. _And he better._ I thought to myself smiling. He pulled me along to the dance floor, and spun a chair on the outside and sat down and moved a chair next to him for me. Alex and his wife started dancing and then his wife made a beeline for Mike grabbing him and pulling him out to dance, soon after I saw Alex heading towards me. He grabbed me and danced with me for a little bit before essentially dropping me off next to Mike in the middle of the dance floor. Mike tentatively grabbed my hand and even more nervously put his hand on my hip. All his movements were unsure but he always held his own. I was basically leading this dance, but he moved along supporting his weight every step of the way, even when I'd move in an opposite direction just to screw with him. For someone who "Couldn't dance" he had a great sense of rhythm and timing and balance… He was just fighting with his uncertainty now.

I heard a familiar song come on and immediately he stopped.

"Sorry I have to do something." He turned and sprinted away from the floor before the lyrics came in. He and Kevin were running back and he cleared a chair, which I thought was kind of impressive in a suit. Most people had cleared off the floor and they were now in the middle dancing around foolishly and singing.

"Why do you build me up (build me up)  
Buttercup, baby,  
Just to let me down (let me down)  
and mess me around." They were echoing the part back and forth singing to each other.

"And then worst of all (worst of all)  
you never call, baby,  
When you say you will (say you will)  
but I love you still  
I need you (I need you)  
more than anyone, darlin'  
You know that I have from the start  
So build me up (build me up)  
Buttercup, don't break my heart." _Yep… definitely singing a love song to another guy._ I laughed. He danced around laughing and singing, completely sure of himself, even if he was making a fool of himself.

""I'll be over at ten", you told me time and again  
But you're late, I wait around and then  
I run to the door, I can't take any more  
It's not you, you let me down again

(Hey, hey, hey!) Baby, baby, try to find  
(Hey, hey, hey!) A little time,  
and I'll make you mine  
(Hey, hey, hey!) I'll be home  
I'll be beside the phone waiting for you  
Ooo-oo-ooo, ooo-oo-ooo" The two of them were in their own world… most people had stopped to watch them yell the lyrics over the music and dance.

"Why do you build me up (build me up)  
Buttercup, baby,  
Just to let me down (let me down)  
and mess me around  
And then worst of all (worst of all)  
you never call, baby,  
When you say you will (say you will)  
but I love you still  
I need you (I need you) more than anyone, darlin'  
You know that I have from the start  
So build me up (build me up)  
Buttercup, don't break my heart" _and now they're covering their heart…_ I thought trying to stop laughing.

"You were my toy but I could be the boy you adore  
If you'd just let me know (bah-dah-dah)  
Although you're untrue, I'm attracted to you  
all the more, Why do I need you so

(Hey, hey, hey!) Baby, baby, try to find  
(Hey, hey, hey!) A little time  
and I'll make you mine,  
(Hey, hey, hey!) I'll be home,  
I'll be beside the phone waiting for you  
Ooo-oo-ooo, ooo-oo-ooo

Why do you build me up (build me up)  
Buttercup, baby,  
Just to let me down (let me down)  
and mess me around  
And then worst of all (worst of all)  
you never call, baby,  
When you say you will (say you will)  
but I love you still  
I need you (I need you)  
more than anyone, darlin'  
You know that I have from the start  
So build me up (build me up)  
Buttercup, don't break my heart

I-I-I need you-oo-oo more than anyone, baby  
You know that I have from the start  
So build me up (build me up)  
Buttercup, don't break my heart." Mike trotted over to me and sat down next to me, he was bright red, probably from dancing and singing. I looked at him oddly.

"What?" He asked as if what he did was not out of the ordinary.

"What was that?"

"Oh that? Heh… long story."

"**Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

"Sir, Nos XI XII and XIII have been captured and put in containment..." she said not finishing her thought.

"Is there something you need to say Ms. Williams?"

"What happened to X"

"I disposed of him."

"That was a bit premature, don't you think sir?"

"No… he was causing problems and not giving data." _Truthfully I needed him gone before he spread anymore poison, or learned anything else. I had cut off his head, burned it, then his organs… all of them his bones were all that remained… and I was a little conscious of that too. _My gaze eventually returned to "Red"

"Dismissed." I covered my eyes and sighed heavily. I covered my face with my hands and sighed heavily after she left. _What if there is some truth to what Xavier said?_ People often made threats to get under people all the time… to screw around with people… I wonder which it was. Regardless I should prepare for the war he threatened. I heard the beep of an incoming call and took it.

"How are our suits coming…" I asked impatiently.

"They're coming along well. We've made the full shield prototype with the help of "Psycho" hopefully we'll be able to move in to the enhancement faze."

"Enhancement?" I asked hoping it was what I was thinking.

"Enhanced strength and speed… hopefully enough to put you on par with vampires, maybe stronger, or faster… but that's just an idea right now."

"Work on it, I'll need one of those suits soon."

"What's the sudden rush, you've always been more worried about good product than speed."

"I always expect you to have good production, don't rush it… but work in haste." I said carefully.

"Yes, but why."

"A storm is coming."

**And that's that. I'm actually updating on time this time… That's worth brownie points right? Right? Well I really enjoyed writing Xavier's part I hope that doesn't say anything about me. The story is coming to a close and I've really enjoyed it so I'm hoping I do it well. Thanks for reading AND reviewing. Remember to give reviews, knucks, high fives, and rolls of twenty dollar bills. Catch you on the flip side.**


	23. Feel Good Drag

**Disclaimer: So yeah, I'm not Stephenie Meyer cause I'll bet she didn't hurt her wrist and back lifting a lawn mower today…**

**Disclaimer Deuce: Human Nature pt.2 Look it up**

"**Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

My body was healed, my body was at full working capacity but there was still some lingering pain left. Nakamura and White had both insisted that they were ready and fully capable of taking down a vampire last week but I knew they had to be in worse pain than I was.

The good news was the Zealot prototype was coming along well, the entire shield system was working flawlessly. The strength output systems and speed enhancers were a completely different story. The whole suit was a material I didn't quite know but it was a full body suit of cloth besides the metal vest that controlled and regulated it. The Prototype Zealot wasn't much to look at but I forgave it of its aesthetic sins for its usefulness. To put it bluntly the piece was as ugly as possible but it got the job done… sometimes. We took to sparring in the one prototype we had Zealot Mark I.

"Psycho" Nate Schmidt was the only one crazy enough to use it, it gave him excellent speed and strength, then would magically stop working…. One time it stopped working right before Briggs prepped for a step behind side kick. Briggs then claimed that he had no clue that it stopped working. _Sure he didn't._ It was how "Tiny" and "Psycho" worked. They worked stiff, hit hard, and laughed about it the next day. I spun the hilted sharp edge in my hand. It was made from Xavier's left femur, I had one for his right too, but something really bugged me about the whole thing, he spoke too confidently, he never once feared me. He was insane… but maybe that was an act?

I'd spent a week familiarizing myself with the Blade. Now I knew every bump, every part of this blade, it didn't feel foreign, and even though I held his left femur in my right hand and his right femur was on my left hip I couldn't get the feeling out of the back of my mind that he wasn't gone.

We picked off Nos XIV, he wouldn't have made a good subject anyway. So we harvested his remains and burned and cleaned him. It sounded disgusting but it was just like cleaning a fish… if I fish was human shaped. We all agreed it was something that needed to be done so we did it. With the fact that I had killed X, and XI, XII, and XIII weren't producing useful information anymore we decided we needed three new subjects and killed Nos XI, XII, and XIII. I asked for information on more vampires… Langley gave it to us fast. _Too fast…_ I was having my suspicions that they were getting their information from Havik, whom I didn't like at all. I didn't trust him, and I didn't like him knowing anything more than necessary, which in my opinion was nothing. We hunted down and captured Nos XV, XVI, XVII, and XVIII. It took us all week to do all four of them but we finally got back to the complex with them. That was this afternoon. I had one message left for me by the brass at Langley after we finally had them all locked up.

"We found him." It was all they needed to say. I didn't want to rest, I didn't want to plan I wanted to hunt him down and slaughter him. _No… murder was too good for him, I wanted to torture him. I wanted to bring him to an inch of his life, just to bring him back… so I could do it again… I want him to suffer such a pain that every vampire alive will feel it just for being the same god forsaken species of monster._ I've waited this long… one more week wouldn't kill me… but rushing out could. I forced myself to relax.

**Embry's POV**

I'd spent most of my week trying not to think about Destiny, not some overwhelming force controlling my every step, the overwhelming southern woman who I'd been getting close to, too close. I checked my e-mail again.

"What's up wolfie?" I smiled for a moment, it was Dena again. We'd started talking again but I had to stop… I wasn't interested right now… I was too focused on Destiny. I skimmed her E-mail.

_Hey Dena…  
Listen… you can do better than me. I'm  
damaged goods, and right now I can't  
get in to more detail than that. I'm not  
interested right now. I know that might  
sound shallow, but I don't want to lead  
you on. I think you're amazing and  
maybe someday I won't be a mess but  
don't hold your breath waiting for me  
you can do better than me anyway…  
Embry._

I didn't feel as depressed as the letter led on but I needed to get her away. I knew that I was interested in her… but honestly I also knew I had way too much on my plate as it was. The fact of the matter is I didn't want to risk hurting her by having left over feelings… _I hate being responsible._ I often wondered how Leah did it. How did she turn around break up with me and just go out with the next guy… did I really mean that little to her? Didn't she feel the same pain I did… I just never could get my head around how she did it. _I guess I'll never know._ I thought to myself before hitting send.

"**Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

My reoccurring nightmares were down to only once a week keeping me sleepless, until I got the news. I had a feeling that I wouldn't be able to sleep until I got him. It was three in the morning, I'd been tossing and turning for hours and decided since I was obviously not going to be sleeping I might as well visit Trombe. I'd been neglecting him in my search and capture of Vampires. I had a 12 pack in my hand as I opened the door to the barn. He lifted his head at me and made a sound of disapproval.

"Yeah I'm sorry about not showing up lately." That horse had such a head on him, he didn't even get up to greet me. I sat down next to him and leaned on him cracking open the first beer.

**Embry's POV**

I decided on something that was going to be a bit difficult for me to sing and play at the same time but hey, what's the fun without a little challenge? I hooked in the electric guitar and took a couple strums. Rosalie came down first, she always was ready to play drums, but never did by herself, Emmett followed soon after.

"Want to play something?"

"Yeah… it's called Feel Good Drag by Anberlin" Emmett looked up the tab for the bass online after a minute he looked up.

"Yeah I think I got it." I'd been practicing this song on and off for a while and decided it'd be fun. Rosalie clicked off the time and we started. I leaned in to the microphone.

"I'm here for you" she said  
And we can stay for awhile,  
My boyfriend's gone,  
We can just pretend.  
Lips that need no introduction  
Now who's the greater sin,  
Your drab eyes seem to invite  
(tell me darling) Where do we begin." I heard the door open.

"Was this over before  
Before it ever began  
Your kiss  
Your calls  
Your crutch  
Like the devils got your hand  
This was over before  
Before it ever began  
Your lips  
Your lies  
Your lust  
Like the devils in your hands." Jasper pulled on his electric guitar plugged it in and looked at a tab I had open.

"Everyone in this town  
Is seeing somebody else  
Everybody's tired of someone  
Our eyes wander for help  
Prayers that need no answer now  
I'm tired of who I am  
You were my greatest mistake  
I fell in love with your sin  
Your littlest sin." Jasper joined us already learning the tab in the time it took to play the chorus.

"Was this over before  
Before it ever began  
Your kiss  
Your calls  
Your crutch  
Like the devils got your hand  
This was over before  
Before it ever began  
Your lips  
Your lies  
Your lust  
Like the devils in your hands

Failure is your disease  
You want my outline drawn  
You are my greatest failure  
Discourse your saving song

Was this over before  
Before it ever began  
Your kiss  
Your calls  
Your crutch  
Like the devils got your hand  
This was over before  
Before it ever began  
Your lips  
Your lies  
Your lust  
Like the devils in your hands

Was this over before  
Before it ever began  
Your kiss  
Your calls  
Your crutch  
Like the devils got your hand  
This was over before  
Before it ever began  
Your lips  
Your lies  
Your lust  
Like the devils in your hands" I sighed heavily unplugging the guitar… it felt good to play music… felt good to sing… I'd missed it. And for that short while I wasn't thinking about Destiny… but that ended as fast as it started. It frustrated me to no end to do nothing… doing nothing is something I was horrible at. When I saw a problem I fixed it, I made it work, made it better… I couldn't do that now and it annoyed me. I sighed and breathed out slowly. _Patience._

"**Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

I threw another can to the side to the area I knew I'd have to clean up. I never drank to get drunk… just enough to take the edge off, just enough to help me relax. I needed it right now. I couldn't deal with this, I'd probably get an hour or two of sleep out here and then the alcohol would be out of my system and no one needed to know any better. I heard the creek of the door opening. Instead of quickly moving I just stayed where I was. I put the twelve back behind Trombe's body. I saw a female silhouette realizing who it was immediately. Hopefully she wouldn't be able to see me, and she'd just leave the way she came. Unfortunately for me Trombe had another idea. He lifted his head up and neyed at Williams.

"You awake Trombe?" She said making her way over. She quickly realized someone else was in the barn, she pulled out her knife and gun.

"Put them away Williams." I called clearly. She did as she was told as her eyes adjusted to the darkness.

"What are you doing out here at this hour of night? I shrugged.

"Just spending some time with Trombe here…" I said making sure I wasn't talking towards Williams. She'd smell the beer on my breath and I'd never made it known that I drank. She was taking notice of it. I made sure to breathe out of my nose as I looked at her.

"Couldn't sleep again?" I nodded hoping that'd be sufficient. Her eyes had adjusted enough to see the pile of Beer cans on the other side of Trombe's leg.

"Rough night huh?"

"Yeah." I said facing her removing the pretense of hiding I'd been drinking.

"So why are you drinking?" she asked.

"Can't sleep." I said flatly.

"Why can't you sleep?"

"Because…" I said before reaching for another two beers and tossed her one. I cracked it open.

"I'm drinking beer." She left it at that.

"Nightmares… It's what gets me… remembering my mother's scream… it keeps me up at night… What about you?" I considered telling her my story, but I hadn't told anyone and I decided against it.

"I'm here thinking about our next target." I said honestly. I saw a little bit of hope drain from her features and the kicked back the beer.

"Target XIX. He travels alone, no coven." I said flatly.

"So what's the problem?" she asked.

"Nothing…" I said again.

"Is there something about this vampire…? Why are you up?"

"He has no special abilities to our knowledge. And I can't sleep because I'm drinking beer spending some overdo time with Trombe here. I patted Trombe's side then started rubbed him and he voiced his approval. Williams leaned over and put her hand on mine stopping me her face turned to me. Our noses were only inches away.

"You don't need to hide your past from me… We are alike… You can pretend we aren't but I know you lost someone the same way I did. You have the same nightmares… You can tell me the truth." Her scent mixed with the smell of beer on her breath was amazing. Even now she looked amazing, she was wearing a light tank top she must usually sleep in but was in long pants for walking. The moon came in from the window behind me and hit her face, and down her neck and chest. The beauty of the moment wasn't lost on me. _Just kiss her already, what's the worst thing that could happen?_ The last thought in my head shook me away. _What is the worse that could happen? _I knew plenty of horrible things that could happen. I took a moment and realized I was starting to lean in taking in the smell of hair that was down. I hadn't seen that in a while. I loved hair like that, just simply down. I forced myself to lean back.

"I have told you the truth… XIX is special…" I said out loud. She leaned in waiting for more.

"You and I are going to take him out without the rest of the team." She nodded but was obviously disappointed. I didn't lie… he was special, and we were going to take him in… I didn't need her support if everything went well… but I always planned on things not going well.

"Is that all… Sir." She said with a hint of anger in her voice.

"Yes Williams." She got up quickly and left the barn. After I knew she was gone I leaned back hanging my head upside down over Trombe. I groaned. Trombe nehed.

"Yeah I know… maybe after XIX is put to rest, permanently."

**Mike's POV**

I couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right with the Cullens. They all seemed too perfect. I couldn't put my finger on it but I could swear there was something… _but what? Are you planning on stopping spending time with them because you have a crazy inkling that something is odd about them?_ Carlisle was a doctor, he wouldn't do anything horrible, he seemed kind enough… Edward was the one that unsettled me the most… as if he sat judging me every moment I was around him… And Tanya… she was amazing, I still didn't understand what she saw in me… _Maybe you're so afraid of something good happening to you that in your own mind you sabotage yourself? _I didn't know… but some things seemed off… Tanya was cold, always cold… even if it was hot she was cold… She always seemed to be aware of things around her happening… more aware than I am. I'd had years of martial arts training and I've spent time focusing on my instincts and it seemed like she just knew when something was happening… _It's crazy talk… I'm just being paranoid… I think._

**Update on Thursday? That hasn't happened in a long time… Thanks for reading as always, and please review I like to read my readers feedback. Remember to review, give knucks, high fives, rolls of twenty dollar bills and ideas, Catch you on the flipside.**


	24. Human Nature Pt 2

**Disclaimer: When they ask why, I tell em I'm not Stephenie Meyer.**

**Disclaimer Deuce: "We've got the rest of our lives to regret."**

"**Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

I exhaled slowly. _This is it… this is my moment._ I thought to myself. I checked made a double check of everything on the Zealot Mark I for the ninth time. Everything checked out, I couldn't match a vampire in strength or speed, but I was pretty damn close, close enough that my instincts should be able to take over. I clenched my fist then touched each finger to my thumb, it worked flawlessly. Even though the kinks were finally out we had much more work to do to make this the Vampire killing machine it would need to be. The shield readings were up at maximum. I threw on the hooded sweat shirt that would be used to cover the equipment on my chest. If he got away we didn't want him knowing about our technology. _He's not getting away… I swear it._ I thought. I pulled a Cuban cigar out of my pocket… It was a gift from my wife, I was going to smoke it that night when she was taken… when my world turned upside down. I took in the smell then lit it and started to smoke. I felt my nerves starting to calm with every inhale. I needed to capture him… Then I'd get him alone and make him pay for what he did to her.

**Lisa "Red" Williams' POV**

He wasn't lying something was different about this one. There were little things… separate occurrences that by themselves wouldn't mean anything… but there were too many of them. "Psycho" Nate Schmidt was the Prototype tester for our team, up until last week he was the only one who ever even used the Zealot Mark I and even he hadn't field tested it yet. And now after just a week of work in it "Ironman" was taking it out. It seemed slightly rushed… it seemed ill prepared… It didn't seem like Elzam at all. He seemed nervous... On edge… The cigar obviously for his nerves… I'd never seen him nervous before, but he talked as if this was just another target. I didn't know he smoked, and that's also unlike him. He never gives out more about his life than necessary… If he was smoking in front of me it meant something was up. He didn't say anything though… which worried me even more. _If this pick up was any more dangerous than any other he'd tell me right?_

**Mike's POV**

It was getting in to the middle of the summer, which unfortunately meant it was getting closer to ending. Mostly I was doing parades with the marching band but when I wasn't I was trying to spend time with Tanya and the Cullens. I still couldn't put the feeling that something was odd out of my mind but I pushed it aside. Tanya brought me in and I opened the door to the downstairs hearing some music. I heard some very good trumpet as well as everything else… I couldn't place my finger on it but the song sounded slightly familiar. The rest of the Cullens came upstairs, Carlisle holding the trumpet.

"Wow that was amazing… I didn't know you played trumpet." He seemed slightly off put but I didn't understand.

"Yes… I enjoy it very much…" he said passing by. _Strange._

"Hey Embry, what was that song?"

"Human Nature Pt.2" I looked at him oddly.

"It's a Michael Jackson cover." He answered.

"I didn't know Carlisle played trumpet… he played really good… like really good!" I said. Tanya turned to me.

"Hey hun, want to watch a movie?"

"Sure." _Is there something ethically wrong with being a good trumpet player?_ I wondered as we sat down to watch a movie. Tanya was cuddled under a blanket leaning up against me, cold as always. It never bugged me because I was always warm. I wore shorts through January I just didn't get cold, so it was kind of refreshing. I listened to her breathing slow down till I knew she was sleeping next to me. I leaned in to her head taking in the smell of her hair then kissing her head gently.

"Words can't describe what you mean to me… someday I'll be able to say that to your face… but until then I'll just show you." I leaned in and kissed her softly. _If you only knew how much you meant to me…_

"**Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

I saw him. It really was him. Here I was on the roof waiting and he's right there. _Fuck waiting. _

"Back me up." I said to Red.

"Wait, back you up? What the hell is going on?" Red asked but I was already jumping off the building. I landed hard but didn't feel a thing. My hood came down over my head at the drop. I stood straight up staring straight at the man who murdered my wife. He turned around and faced me trying to figure out exactly where I came from.

"Give me your wallet." I said trying to play it off as a mugging. He laughed and crossed his arms.

"You really picked the wrong guy…" he said looking around scanning for life. His eyes returned to me then sprinted forward closing the distance. I threw my body forward with a kick as hard as I could. I watched in awe and wonder as he flew backwards in to wall behind him with trash and dumpsters. I smiled. Then took down my hood. He stood back up.

"Nice move fu- hey… I remember you." _We have an audience. _I charged after him. He ran at me, this time he was prepared and as I swung my blade out of its hilt he bent at the hips dodging under it. I came back around and he caught my arm.

"Not bad…" He punched me sending me in to a wall. I got back up quickly and reached for my other blade throwing it at him. He caught it easily but he didn't expect the tazer I shot at him. His body fell to the ground. As I watched him squirm in pain realized how foolish it was of me. I looked back up to see "Red" watching. _Sloppy "Ironman" real sloppy._

**Embry's POV**

Waiting was driving me mad… I couldn't sit around and wait… every day it seemed like Destiny was more like a dream than a memory… as if she was going to disappear and never exist if I did nothing. No one would remember her… and soon… maybe… she wouldn't remember me.

"**Ironman" Jack Elzam's POV**

I stared in to the interrogation room. The only thing I'd managed to do right last week when I was working with Williams is throw her off my trail again… We both knew I wasn't stable so I smoked a Cigar. I hate smoking. I loathe smokers my grandfather died because of it and here I was smoking a cigar someone gave to me in service… it felt good… but never again. Never again will I smoke. _I won't have to._ I disabled the video feed to the interrogation room, not because I thought anyone on the complex should be protected from seeing what I should do. No I just didn't want them to see me like this. This was my revenge, and I'd have it alone. I powered up the Zealot mark I and pulled over my hooded sweatshirt and opened the door. He smiled at me.

"You're that one guy... I let live." I smiled back at him.

"That was your greatest mistake… You don't know who I am." He laughed.

"But of course I do… You're Davis Johnson, Green Beret… What… you thought it all a coincidence that out of everyone in that godforsaken town that I picked YOUR wife to kill… I knew exactly who you were." I knew I should have taken the time to stay calm and continue the questioning but I couldn't. I charged at him I jumped over the table tackling him his restraints still on. His handcuff like restraints held his arms under my knees and I took pot shots at his face. I picked him back up and grabbed my knife cutting clear off one of his ears and pulling a lighter out of my pocket. He made his way up to a sitting basis again. I lit his ear on fire in front of him and watched it disappear in to ashes.

"You know you're supposed to wait till I don't answer your question to start the torture." He said calmly. His face already starting to puff up from my strikes.

"You don't get it do you? I'm not going to make any deals… at the end of this you're going to die… it's only a matter of time." I said forcing myself to hold back.

"You want to know what your wife tasted like?" he asked goading me.

"Auburn wheat… her blood was fantastic." He said smiling. My grip around the blade tightened.

"And you laid there pathetically… you didn't try to move, you didn't try to chase me… you gave up so you could live to fight another day… you abandoned your wife to me… it was pathetic really." I flung the blade at him piercing his chest. Horror struck through his face, then a smile he pulled the blade out of his chest and broke his restraints with it. He flew over the table at me. I didn't move at first but pushed off my back leg as hard as I could meeting him with front kick with all my might. He smashed back in to the wall behind him. He turned up the knife realizing I was ready for him. He stabbed and I moved inside his body and pulled the arm to me and stepped behind him disarming his blade behind his back. I spun it in my fingers and stabbed three times in his back before he slammed me up against the wall forcing me to let go and turned back to me. I pulled out the second knife wielding both. I slowly circled around him. He came in for a strike I moved out of the way for and swung both blades horizontally he dodged back the blades inches away from him then I leapt forward stabbing both in to either side of his chest. He went down hard and blacked out immediately. I restrained him again.

"How do you know who I am?" I said after he came to. He looked down realizing he couldn't move his arms or legs anymore. He blinked and smiled.

"Simple… my boss told me everything I needed to know about you. He's been observing you and the military for years… he's everywhere."

"Who is your boss?" I asked. He smiled again. _Why the hell isn't he even trying to hide the answers?_

"Why none other than Xavier." He said smirking. Now it was my turn to laugh.

"I killed him a week ago." I said honestly. He started laughing like a maniac.

"Sure you did…" He said calming down. I spun the blades in front of him.

"These were his femurs." I said letting a bit of pride show. He shrugged as if the fact that I stabbed him with his boss's femur didn't change anything. I wasn't going to get anything more out of him. I stabbed both weapons in to his knees.

"I've wondered for a while… can Vampires power lights?" I grabbed my modified jumper cables and put them on either weapon in to his knee. I disconnected the lights and connected them again to the cables, they lit and he screamed.

"I guess they do." I said walking out of the room. I breathed deeply stepping closing the door then saw her. Williams was standing in front of the mirror. She saw everything.

"So he killed your wife huh?" she said facing me I turned to her.

"He was insane."

"So if I look up Davis Johnson I'll find nothing." I shrugged.

"Don't lie to me damn it, I'll find it. Why the hell do you think you need to lie to me?"

"If I lie it's for your own protection… don't look in to Davis Johnson… he died in active service." She blinked.

"A short while before you showed up… didn't he?"

"Yes… it's to protect everyone he knew…"

"His wife died after that?"

"She committed suicide… according to reports." I said solemnly. She looked like she wanted to comfort me.

"Ms. Williams I hope you understand that you can't tell anyone else." She nodded.

"Commander Jack Elzam, what is our next course of action."

"We've got the intel we need. We're going silent, no more captures, the vampires, at least some of them know of us… we have to let it die down, meanwhile we'll still further our weapons research and training."

"Yes sir." She saluted.

"Dismissed."

**Xavier's POV **

"Is it time to strike yet?"

**"Patience, Xavier."**

"I would never dare to question you brilliance master, I just-"

**"Do you think me so conceited to need your ****commendation****."**

"Of course not master."

**"When it happens… it won't be a strike, it will be a disintegration of government and reformation of the world under my control."**

"I await with baited breath master"

**"Don't call me master. As if your groveling could appease me."**

"Then what should I call you?"

**"****Primus Hemi Mortalis**"

**Don't readjust your tvs, the fact that that person speaks in bold is very significant… It'll show up again later. Yes this is the last Chapter, Epilogue to follow (short chapter 1 POV cliffy-set up for next story) I spent a lot of time this weekend tweaking my stories so they all fit together perfectly, remind me to never again right a sequel before the prequel… Thanks for the continued support through this story. Please remember to review, give knucks, rolls of twenties, and high fives. Catch you on the flip side.**


	25. Epilogue

**Disclaimer: **

**Disclaimer Deuce: I may not Update next week… so I wrote this Epilogue early to post. There will be more information in the Authors note.**

**Embry's POV**

I was waiting impatiently for a message from D. I got a message from her… but it wasn't the one I was waiting for. I looked over the e-mail reading it over repeatedly. Each time it was harder to finish. I kept looking for the "just kidding" for the "I'll be back soon." Or the "I'd never leave you." But it never came.

I stared down at my giant hands and fingers. I made a fist, clenched it then let it go slowly. I blinked a couple times and closed and exhaled slowly closing my eyes. Jasper told me to go do what I had to. It was all I needed to hear. There was still another month of summer, hopefully I could sort out this whole problem with D… make things right… I would do what I had to do to be with her. She might not understand it but I do. A trip across the country wasn't too much for me.

I stared down at the large duffel bag I had packed for the trip, almost asking it if leaving isn't a mistake. _If I don't try I'll never know if we had a chance. And if everything goes well, and she falls for you again… then what, surprise! I'm a werewolf! That'd be great. I'll gladly deal with that problem if it comes up. The times to be indecisive came and went, and believe me, you nailed it._

It all started a month ago when she told me to forget about her and move on. It was the one e-mail I got from her in June. I'd e-mailed her back immediately saying I'd wait. Waiting was something I could do. It wouldn't be easy, but I was prepared to lounge around all summer without a war to fight waiting for her brother to get better. That was my plan. Play some music, shoot some guns, and learn how to dance, maybe throw in some martial arts… maybe not. Mike was teaching me this and that. Who knew, I heard Sam had a little Baby boy on the way… maybe go and meet him, spend some time with the old friends.

All my other plans flew out of the window with this e-mail. Today on this torturously humid Minnesota day I would travel to meet 'my' Destiny. I heard thunder crackle for the first time. First there was a drop… then a trickle, and then in moments it started to downpour. I love rain. I smiled. Grabbing my bag and leaning down and looking down at the computer one last time.

_Embry,  
I told you to just move on you can do  
better than me. Sam's gotten better  
but one of his nurses and I really  
clicked. I'm going to start seeing him.  
don't stop believing in yourself Embry.  
You deserve much better than me.  
I'm sorry it ended like this but it is for  
the best._

_ Destiny Steramin_

I gulped after taking in the e-mail one last time. I walked outside taking in the down pouring of rain. I breathed out deeply raising my eyes with closed eyes to the sky taking it all in. _It's time to make things happen… time to change my Destiny._

**I realize this is a rather short chapter even for an epilogue. This next weekend is Independence day, July 4****th****. And there's been a death in my family. Because of that I don't know if I'll have the motivation to write next week. Thanks for reading, the next story is already posted in this series in full. The name of it is "What Fate took from Embry" Please read that and review it if you haven't. Thanks for reading.**


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